Construction of US$ 221.8 million gas-cleaning and sulphuric acid plant at the Tsumeb smelter, with Dundee Precious spoke person Metals Tsumeb, Alina Garises confirming that it will be commissioned by June this year.
According to the company’s spoke construction has been entered final phases plant and final checks. The gas-cleaning and sulphuric acid plant project will be among biggest in  the country’s mining sector, being one of the biggest ever done in the mining industry of Namibia.
Construction of the suphuric acid plant was started in eighteen months ago and the time given was 22 months, which has been already beaten – it has been in construction for the last 18 months. With a production capacity of between 270 000 and 340 000 tonnes of acid annually, the gas-cleaning/sulphuric acid plant project will help eliminate the problematic sulphur dioxide gas released during copper-smelting process.
She also added that the construction of the plant have not undergone any obstacle and it’s almost complete for now they are on last touches to see the commissioning successful in the next two months.
“While hundreds of workers are applying finishing touches to all the structural and mechanical aspects of the project, scores of others are focused on installing the last electrical components, cable racks, electronic-monitoring systems and power connections so that pre-commissioning checks can begin,” said Alina.
Currently, the contractor was doing civil construction works to allow installation of a converter, which will convert sulphur dioxide into sulphuric acid. The acid from the gas-cleaning and sulphuric acid plant will be sold to Namibia’s uranium mines for production processing. Installation of the converter would commence by June since converter shells will be moved to the converter aisle this month.
The converter, which is a large cylindrical furnace, transforms molten copper matte into blister copper during the conversion process. Namibia is also undertaking other projects such as the 250 megawatt Erongo gas power plant project, set to be commenced in 2016.
