• Skip to main content

    Sulphur 418 May-Jun 2025

    3 May 2025

    Fatal dam collapses at nickel facilities

    Fatal dam collapses at nickel facilities

    Two dam failures at the Morowali industrial park in Indonesia have killed three people. On March 16, during heavy rains, the PT Huayue Nickel Cobalt tailings storage facility at the Morowali industrial park failed, and tailings flowed into the Bahadopi River. The breach flooded facilities at the industrial park and the village of Labota. Five days later another tailings dam inside the industrial park, owned by PT Qing Mei Bang (QMB) New Energy Materials, collapsed, killing three workers. The affected tailings facilities store acidic waste from high pressure acid leaching (HPAL). It is estimated that for every ton of nickel, HPAL processing generates 150-200 tons of tailings. The affected facilities use filtered tailings, where some of the water is removed from the tailings before they are placed the dam. However, heavy rains, landslips and seismic activity appear to have affected the stability of some of the dams.

    Latest in Asia

    LS MnM targets battery-materials growth with smelter-derived sulphuric acid

    South Korean metals producer LS MnM plans to use sulphuric acid recovered from copper-smelting operations to process nickel and cobalt for battery materials, linking its existing metals business with its expansion into the electric-vehicle supply chain. The company captures sulphur dioxide generated at its Onsan Smelter and converts it into sulphuric acid. LS MnM’s sulphuric-acid facilities have annual capacity of 1.925 million t/a, according to the company, providing a potential internal reagent source for hydrometallurgical processing.

    MoU on coal gasification

    Coal India Limited (CIL) says that it has executed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Private Limited (AMNS), to examine the use of syngas from a gasification facility which CIL would set up next to the ArcelorMittal’s Paradip pellet plant in Odisha state. The company says that it will be “exploring the possibility of utilising syngas produced from a coal gasification facility… coupled with CCUS.” The focus of the MoU will initially be to assess the technical, commercial, and implementation aspects of the project and to facilitate preparation of a preliminary feasibility report for evaluating project viability.