Bateman Engineering NV - DC Furnace Track Record

First contract in China

Bateman Engineering has been awarded a US$4 million contract from Yunnan Xinli Nonferrous Metals Co.
Ltd to provide engineering services for a new titanium slag smelting plant to be constructed in the Chinese
Province of Yunnan. The project is the first to be carried out by Bateman Engineering in China, and offers
the potential for future business in the region, particularly with Yunnan Xinli's parent company, the
China Yunnan Metallurgical Group (CYMG).

The plant will produce 100,000 t/yr of high-grade titanium dioxide (TiO₂) slag, which is used as a
feedstock in the pigment industry. The slag will be produced from a feed of ilmenite utilising DC
arc furnace smelting technology in a 25 MW furnace.

The furnace will be designed with an offgas scrubber and the cleaned furnace gas will be used as
a combustion fuel for pre-heating the ilmenite feedstock, thus maximising energy efficiency.

The contract comprises the basic engineering of the plant, as well as technical assistance and training
during construction, commissioning and ramp-up. Bateman Engineering has also been contracted to do
some of the detailed engineering of the control system and critical process plants such as the furnace,
pre-heater and offgas scrubber, and there is a further possibility for the company to supply some of
this equipment.

CYMG (of which Yunnan Xinli is a subsidiary) has been in operation since 1937 and is listed on the
Shanghai Stock Exchange. It is one of the top 500 companies in China and has diverse interests
in non-ferrous metals.

The TiO₂ project is the first step by CYMG to enter the TiO₂ slag industry. The company plans to start
production of TiO₂ slag within the next two years and is also planning downstream pigment
production and titanium metal production plants.

Commenting on the contract award, Dr Sivi Gounden, Bateman Engineering CEO, said:
"This is a very exciting development for Bateman Engineering as it represents our entry into the
Chinese market, which presents enormous opportunities for further growth. While the project
size is modest, it is strategically important, and is indicative of our continuing international expansion."

DC-smelting study on nickel ore from Shevchenko, Kazakhstan

BATEMAN was contracted by Mintek to provide the engineering input to a prefeasibility study for Oriel
Resources plc on a ferronickel-process plant for the Shevchenko project in Kazakhstan.
The study was completed successfully.

BATEMAN handled the engineering design and costing of the process plant and became involved
in the project because of its previous experience on similar DC-arc smelting studies.

The processing tests, conducted by Mintek's Pyrometallurgical Division, were positive. Mintek dried,
calcined and smelted 6 t of the Shevchenko nickel ore in its 200 kVA DC-arc furnace at a temperature
of about 1 600 ¡C at an average feed rate of 65 kg/h. Optimal conditions were achieved when adding
4,5 % coal and 9 % magnesite flux to the furnace feed and yielded a crude ferronickel product with
in excess of 20% nickel with recoveries conservatively estimated at 89 %.

As a result, Oriel Resources, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, is considering a
definitive feasibility study on the project.

Chambishi Metals installs DC open-arc furnace

Bateman Titaco has completed the engineering, procurement and commissioning of the 40MW DC
arc smelter and associated works at Anglovaal Mining’s (Avmin’s) Chambishi Metals operation in
Zambia. The site is located 30 km northwest of Kitwe, on the road to Chingola.

First tap of slag from Chambishi Metals’ DC furnace.

The smelter portion of the project is valued at about R180M, including the civil, structural, mechanical,
electrical and instrumentation work and engineering services. Bateman Titaco was responsible for the
circuit from the receipt of prepared raw materials from the conveying system at the furnace building
through to the discharge of material from the system feeding atomised material to the new leach plant.

A rotary conveyor supplies premixed material (being mostly dried slag, with minor fractions of coal, as
reductant, and fluxes) into eight feed storage bins, which weigh and feed batches of material into eight
dedicated weigh hoppers. The contents of the weigh hoppers are discharged by electromagnetic feeders
into chutes leading into the furnace.

Current is passed through the charge via a graphite electrode inserted through the furnace roof and removed
via the conductive hearth anode. Molten slag is tapped into pots which are hauled to the slag dump in large
custom-designed road haulers – at 100 tonne capacity they are the largest of their type ever made in RSA.
The molten iron / copper / cobalt alloy is poured from a different taphole into lined ladles, which are moved
by crane to the atomising system and placed in a ladle tilter. The molten alloy is then poured under controlled
conditions into high-pressure water jets and atomised to produce a fine powder which is stored as a
suspension in water in an agitated tank until pumped to the leaching plant. In emergencies, or if required,
molten alloy can be diverted from the ladle tilter through a launder to a casting machine to produce alloy pigs.
The alloy contains between 60 and 80 % of iron with the remainder in approximately the same proportions
of copper and cobalt.

BATEMAN and its associates supplied and engineered all the mudguns, drills and casting equipment for the
furnace. The atomising plant was supplied in association with ASL of Sheffield, UK. DC plasma technology
was selected for this application because cobalt recoveries would have been much lower in an AC furnace.
Avmin and Bateman Titaco engineers developed the initial furnace design, with detailed design by Bateman
Titaco including finite element analysis. The design was independently modelled, reviewed and verified by
HG Engineering, Toronto, Canada.

Design and procurement progressed in accordance with a tight schedule and during a period of intensive
process development and evolution. Work on this PCM contract started in November 1998. The smelter was
energised on 24 January 2001 and the first metal produced successfully, a world first for this type of application.

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