Section: CRUSU Industry News

In January, Kazakh uranium producer Kazatomprom warned of potential adjustments to its 2024 uranium production due to challenges with sulphuric acid availability and construction delays at new uranium mining operations. In a statement the company said that its projected uranium output for 2024 will be between 21,000 t/a and 22,500 t/d U3 O8 , around 20% lower than the amount it had been expecting to be able to mine. Kazatomprom’s uranium output was 21,100 t/a U3O8 in 2023, down 1% on 2022 figures, with output flat during 4Q 2023. While it said it had sufficient inventory in stock to cover contracted deliveries in 2024, there could be problems for 2025 deliveries.

Freeport Indonesia has inaugurated the $250 million expansion at its PT Smelting copper smelter in Gresik, East Java, in a ceremony attended by Indonesian president Joko Widodo. Smelting, a joint venture between Freeport McMoRan and Mitsubishi Materials, has increased copper concentrate processing capacity to 1.3 million t/a, up from the previous figure of 1.0 million t/a, with copper cathode production of 300,000 t/a.

US domestic oil production has surged during 2023, reaching 13.3 million bbl/d in December, a record not just for the US but for any single country’s oil production. Adding in natural gas liquids and biofuels takes overall liquids production to 21.4 million bbl/d. Exports are also running at record levels, around 6 million bbl/d. This is a remarkable turnaround from 2008, when production was less then 5 million bbl/d and exports essentially zero. Furthermore, non-OPEC production is continuing to expand, with Brazil reaching 3.4 million bbl/d of oil production and 4.2 million bbl/d of liquids, and Canada producing 4.8 million bbl/d of crude and 5.7 million bbl/d of total liquids, keeping oil prices moderated in spite of OPEC+ production cuts. Global oil production is expected to reach a record level in 2024, with non-OPEC+ liquids growth projected to increase by 2.7 million bbl/d, far more than demand growth of 1.6 million bbl/d. n

Tecnimont, part of MAIRE’s Integrated E&C Solutions business unit, has signed a letter of award with ADNOC for the onshore processing plant of the Hail and Ghasha Development Project. The award was signed at ADIPEC, the world’s largest energy summit. The project aims to operate with net zero CO 2 emissions, in part due to the facility’s CO 2 carbon capture and recovery units, which will allow the capture and storage of CO 2 . The project will capture 1.5 million t/a of CO 2 , taking ADNOC’s committed carbon capture capacity to almost 4 million t/a. The company recently announced its decision to double its carbon capture capacity to 10 million t/a by 2030. The Hail and Ghasha CO 2 will be captured, transported onshore and stored underground, while low-carbon hydrogen will be produced to replace fuel gas and further reduce emissions, according to ADNOC. The project will also use power from nuclear power plants and renewable sources from the grid.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has contracted with MECS, Inc. (MECS), a subsidiary of Elessent Clean Technologies, for the Kansanshi smelter expansion at the Kansanshi mine at Solwezi. MECS’ scope of work will include a redesign of the existing sulphur-burning sulphuric acid plant into a copper smelter off-gas recovery sulphuric acid plant. This transition to a copper smelter off-gas recovery acid plant will enable First Quantum to reduce emissions from the existing copper smelter, increase production at the mine, and supply more copper to the global market, which will enable the adoption of greener technologies. MECS’ design for First Quantum incorporates proprietary technologies such as MECS® catalyst for low emissions and high conversion, Brink® mist eliminators, ZeCor® alloy towers and pump tank and UniFlo® acid distributor technology for operational reliability and efficiency.

Following the completion of expansion work on the ultra-sour gas Shah field in May 2023, production has been ramped up. Occidental, which owns 40% of the Shah project and which operates the field in conjunction with ADONC Sour Gas, reported in July that it had achieved record output at Shah, with gross gas sales reaching 722 million scfd in Q2 2023 (equivalent to 1.1 billion scf/d of raw gas, which is 23% H2S and 10% CO 2 ). The expansion has taken processing capacity at Shah to 1.45 billion scf/d and forms part of the UAE’s plans to achieve gas self-sufficiency by the end of the decade. The expansion was conducted by Saipem, who were awarded a $510 million contract in 2021 to expand output from 1.3 billion scf/d to the current 1.45 billion scf/d. Work was completed two months ahead of schedule, according to Occidental.

Adani Enterprises says that its new greenfield copper smelter at Mundra in Gujarat, being developed by its subsidiary Kutch Copper Ltd, will begin operations in March 2024. The $1.1 billion project will have an annual production capacity of 1 million t/a of copper once the second phase is complete, but the March 24 start-up will be for the first, 500,000 t/a phase. The plant will also produce 25 t/a of gold, 250 t/a of silver, and 1.5 million t/a of sulphuric acid and 250,000 t/a of phosphoric acid as by-products. India currently imports roughly two million t/a of sulphuric acid since the closure of the Vedanta smelter in Tamil Nadu.

Kazakhstan’s oil and condensate output increased by 7% from 1.79 million bbl/d to 1.92 million bbl/d in early June after sour gas reinjection operations resumed at the Kashagan offshore oil and gas development following a recent outage, according to the Kazkah Energy Ministry. Reinjection of sour gas into two wells resumed on 8th June, enabling operator the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) to boost oil and condensate production at a large artificial island in Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea waters. Reinjection was paused on May 20th following the detection of sour gas during routine sampling and a subsequent integrity test. Kashagan normally produces about 300,000 barrels of oil per day. Kazakhstan expects Kashsgan to raise oil production this year to 18.2 million t/a from 12.7 million t/a in 2022.

Metso is launching an advanced sustainable battery black mass recycling process as part of its battery minerals technology offering, which covers concentration and hydrometallurgical processing as well as related services. Demand for battery minerals is increasing sharply with the ongoing transition to clean energy sources. An electric car battery weighs approximately 200 kg. Recycling of black mass from batteries with Metso’s process can reduce up to 60% of embedded carbon compared to use of virgin materials and enables the treatment of mechanically separated and shredded batteries for recovering battery raw materials like nickel, cobalt, and lithium, as well as manganese and copper.

Worley has been awarded a contract to supply Chemetics’ CORESO2™ technology for a sulphuric acid plant and associated oxygen unit at the Arafura Rare Earths project, sited 135 km north of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory. A greenfield mine will extract and process neodymium and praseodymium to create ultra-strong permanent magnets for a range of applications, such as household electronics and high-performance motors for electric vehicles.