Zimbabwe: 2 Mt/a spodumene, built in 364 days and then operated
Dense medium separation solved a flotation problem, and the operation contract turned a commissioned plant into one running above design throughput.
Project at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | Zimbabwe |
| Capacity | 2 Mt/a spodumene concentrator |
| Scope | EPC+M+O, cost plus profit sharing |
| Schedule | 364 days from contract signature to production |
| Mill throughput | Above design capacity by 7.6% |
| Equipment utilisation | 95.7% |
| Concentrate grade | Stable above 5.5% |
| Recovery | Raised from 59.5% to 69% |
| Incremental output | Around 70,000 t of concentrate per year |
What the project involved
The metallurgical problem came first. Petalite in this orebody could not be separated effectively by flotation, so the test programme moved to dense medium separation: heavy liquid tests with tetrabromoethane in the laboratory, then pilot verification with ferrosilicon medium.
The flowsheet that came out of that work runs crushing and screening, dense medium separation to recover petalite, grinding and classification, gravity recovery of tantalum and niobium, desliming, mica flotation and finally spodumene flotation.
Delivery was EPC+M+O under a cost plus profit sharing model, which aligns the contractor with the plant's performance after handover rather than at handover. The operating results reported for the project are the reason that structure matters: mill throughput above design, equipment utilisation at 95.7%, and recovery lifted by nearly ten percentage points.
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