Tag Archives: Veolia

American Industrial Partners to acquire Veolia North America’s sulphuric acid regen business

Energy minerals, Mineral processing, Mining mergers and acquisitions, Precious metals, , , , ,

American Industrial Partners (AIP) has announced it has acquired the Sulfuric Acid Regeneration Business of Veolia North America, which includes its sulphuric acid and potassium hydroxide regeneration, sulphur gas recovery and sulphur-based products production businesses.

The company has been renamed Nexpera, with the mission to bring next-level expertise for industrial chemistry to its customer base, AIP says.

A provider of mission-critical circular economy environmental services and products, the Sulfuric Acid Regeneration Business helps refineries cleanly process sulphur gas and regenerate spent sulphuric acid and potassium hydroxide, which are critical to the alkylation process. In addition, it manufactures sulphuric acid and sulphur derivatives for a broad range of industrial processes, including semiconductor production, gold and copper mining, and electric vehicle battery production.

The company also regenerates and converts sulphuric acid, sulfphur gas and elemental sulphur into merchant sulphuric acid and high-value sulphur derivatives for industrial end uses, including fertilisers, metals, personal care, water treatment and chemical processing. Headquartered in Newark, Delaware, the Sulfuric Acid Regeneration Business operates 13 facilities, including five on-site at refineries, and employs approximately 300 full-time employees across USA.

Stuart Thomas, CEO at the Sulfuric Acid Regeneration Business, said: “Over the last two decades there has been transformative advancement in the industry, providing a great opportunity for us to increasingly serve as the go-to provider of outsourced refinery regeneration services. The business is expected to continue to benefit from strong tailwinds and our partnership with AIP will enable us to further capitalise on those opportunities to take the business to new heights. We look forward to this next chapter and working closely with AIP to chart our future growth.”

Alex Schukin, Partner at AIP, added: “Nexpera’s business units align with strong market drivers related to clean fuel production, emission reduction and reshoring of industrial activities in the US. We look forward to partnering with the Nexpera team as they enable their customers to meet the world’s growing demand for clean-burning fuel components with sustainable, efficient and environmentally conscious regeneration services. As an industry leader, the company serves a vital role in our nation’s energy infrastructure while also addressing diverse, growing and high-value applications across the industrial economy.”

This deal marks AIP’s fourth acquisition this month, following its strategic investments in Austin Powder, a leading provider of industrial explosives and engineered blasting solutions, Aker BioMarine’s Feed Ingredients business, the “world’s only” industrial-scale krill harvester, and the Grain & Protein division of AGCO, a leading provider of grain storage, seed processing and protein production.

Veolia wins two-year water management contract renewal at AngloGold Obuasi

Environmental, Mine operation news, Mining services, Precious metals, Water management, , , , ,

Veolia says it has renewed its contract with AngloGold Ashanti Ghana Limited, part of the South Africa headquartered gold mining company, AngloGold Ashanti, with Veolia Ghana Limited continuing to be responsible for operating and maintaining all the water treatment plants for the Obuasi open-pit and underground operations in Ghana.

These two-year extension confirms Veolia’s operational know-how in the preservation, depollution and renewal of water resources for the mining industry, it says.

Six facilities are required to guarantee the treated water and discharge quality for AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi mine: four wastewater treatment plants and two drinking water treatment plants.

This water is used in various activities associated with the exploration, extraction and transformation processes associated with mining, whether that is to process ore, remove dust, transport sludge, or supply employees needs. In a tropical climate subject to highly seasonal heavy rainfall, it is the Ghanaian gold mine’s responsibility to manage its wastewater and its process residue in order to comply with the local Environmental Protection Agency’s requirements in terms of discharges into the ecosystem.

Veolia, in 2019, was originally awarded a four-year contract to carry out these services at Obuasi. During these four years, it was awarded “Best Contractor Company in Quarter 3 2022” by AngloGold Ashanti Ghana, having worked more than 1 million hours without a single accident-related stoppage. Veolia also managed to comply with the environmental requirements in force by producing nearly 33.5 million cu.m of water, including about 7 million cu.m of drinking water for the needs of the site and surrounding communities.

Philippe Bourdeaux, Veolia’s Executive Vice President, Africa and Middle East, said: “Our group works side by side with industrial companies to respond to the major challenges they face, both in Africa and around the world. Veolia will continue to make its know-how
available to AngloGold Ashanti and to the mining industry to manage water as a finite and endangered resource.”

ioneer contracts Veolia Water Technologies for Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project

Energy minerals, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ioneer Ltd has awarded a major engineering and equipment supply contract to Veolia Water Technologies Inc for the development of the company’s wholly-owned Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada, USA.

Veolia has commenced work on final detailed engineering design of the equipment package, which includes evaporation, crystallisation and dewatering equipment. It is the largest single supply contract that ioneer will award as part of the Rhyolite Ridge build, the company said.

The contract has been awarded on a limited notice to proceed basis. Phase one, the supply of engineering services for detailed design, has commenced while phase two, the supply of equipment, is conditional on a final investment decision on the project by ioneer’s Board of Directors.

The lithium and boron resource at Rhyolite Ridge is estimated at 146.5 Mt, including a reserve of 60 Mt. The company expects to mine and process 63.8 Mt over the 26-year mine life at an average annual rate of 2.5 Mt/y.

Veolia is, ioneer says, a world leader in the design and delivery of systems for purification, recovery and drying of inorganic chemicals using HPD® evaporation and crystallisation technologies. Furthermore, Veolia provides state-of-the-art research and development capabilities to facilitate the understanding of multi-component systems and their optimisation for efficiency, operability and final product quality.

Veolia and ioneer have been working together since 2018 to demonstrate the feasibility of the process design, including design and operation of ioneer’s full simulation pilot plant in Vancouver, British Columbia. Veolia has also conducted laboratory testing and simulated key unit operations including clarification, ion exchange purification, evaporation, crystallisation and precipitation at Veolia’s Phillip J Stewart Technology Center in Plainfield, Illinois, including the production of high purity lithium hydroxide monohydrate. The results obtained from this work further confirmed the design parameters, reduced the technical risks and boosted the project economics, according to ioneer.

ioneer Managing Director, Bernard Rowe, said: “We have been working closely with Veolia over the past three years during the pilot plant and definitive feasibility study phases and have developed a strong relationship and mutual respect. Veolia is a recognised leader in process design and engineering, with direct experience in developing solutions for lithium processing facilities. Veolia’s experience and capabilities are important to meet required purity standards in our production facilities.”

CEO of Veolia Water Technologies Americas, Jim Brown, said: “Veolia, as the leader in ecological transformation, is excited to be part of ioneer’s commitment to providing the materials necessary to further develop renewable energy and clean technologies by utilising our industry experience and state-of-the-art research facility to develop this resource. Our long-term cooperation working together with ioneer has been instrumental in bringing the project to this point.”

Salt Lake Potash nears SOP production milestone at Lake Way

Comminution of minerals, Industrial minerals, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining services, Water management, , , , , , , ,

Salt Lake Potash Limited remains on track for first production and sale of sulphate of potash (SOP) in the June quarter after declaring the commencement of process plant commissioning at its Lake Way project in Western Australia.

In a project update, the company said first time potassium-rich harvest salts, precipitated from lake aquifer brine, have been fed into an SOP plant in Australia.

These harvest sales were successfully fed into the feed hopper, conveyed to the surge bin, run through the lump breaker, and then into the attritioning feed tank at the front end of the process plant. This front-end plant commissioning was powered by 2 MW diesel generators, which will continue to be used to progress the process in the near term.

Over the coming weeks the utilities, conversion circuit, flotation circuits, crystallisers and dryer will all be commissioned ahead of full load commissioning and SOP production in the June quarter, it said.

Consultants from the plant designer, Wood Group, as well as vendors Veolia and Broadbent (among others) will be assisting in the commissioning process.

In the meantime, gas supply lines and the delivery station for the 10 MW power station have been fully commissioned, with “power on” scheduled for late April to support final commissioning activities and production commencement.

Lake Way is a 245,000 t/y SOP development with an expected mine life of over 20 years. Located in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, it is expected to produce a high-quality SOP fertiliser with the help of Veolia Water Technologies’ HPD® crystallisation systems, among other processes.

Orocobre and Toyota greenlight Olaroz lithium expansion in Argentina

Energy minerals, Industrial minerals, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining project news, Mining services, , , , , ,

Project partners Orocobre and Toyota Tsusho Corp have approved the stage-two expansion of the Olaroz lithium facility in Argentina.

The expansion, set to cost $295 million including $25 million contingency, will increase the facility’s capacity by 25,000 t/y of lithium carbonate, bringing total capacity to 42,500 t/y.

It will also see Olaroz produce technical grade (>99% Li2CO3) lithium carbonate, part of which will be used as feedstock for the proposed Naraha lithium hydroxide plant to be built in Japan.

The stage-two expansion involves construction of evaporation ponds, roads and camp upgrades, all of which have already commenced. Commissioning of both the stage-two expansion and the Naraha plant are expected in the second half of 2020.

During the development of stage two, the stage one plant will progressively migrate to 100% battery-grade lithium carbonate production, Orocobre said. Upon achievement of full production rates, the product distribution, post stage two, is expected to be:

  • 17,500 t/y of battery-grade lithium carbonate;
  • 9,500 t/y of technical-grade carbonate as feedstock for 10,000 t/y battery-grade lithium hydroxide production at the Naraha plant
  • 15,500 t/y of technical-grade lithium carbonate.

The expansion will be funded by a combination of project debt, operation cashflows and shareholder loans, Orocobre said.

Negotiations on the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the proposed Naraha hydroxide plant were advancing rapidly between Toyota Tsusho as operator and Veolia the preferred EPC contractor, Orocobre said.

“As previously advised, the EPC contract is expected to be finalised during this quarter,” the company said.

The Olaroz lithium facility is in Jujuy Province, northern Argentina. After seven years of planning, developing, construction and commissioning, the first sale of lithium carbonate from the facility occurred in late April 2015 and volumes have been increasing since that time.

Olaroz hosts a JORC/NI 43-101 compliant measured and indicated resource of 6.4 Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent and is capable of sustaining current continuous production for 40-plus years with only circa-15% of the defined resource extracted, the company says.