Authors:
L. Rodd, J.-H. Yoo, K. Y. Lim, N. Voermann, F. Stober, B. Wasmund, S. H. Lee, S.-J. Roh, J.-H. Park
The 12th International Ferro-alloys Congress, Helsinki, Finland June 6-9, 2010
Abstract
SNNC, Société du Nickel de Nouvelle Calédonie et Corée, started up its new ferronickel smelter in the third quarter of 2008, and in early 2009 completed ramp-up of the furnace to its full design production level. The plant is based on the rotary kiln – electric furnace (RKEF) process, with two rotary kilns and a single a large furnace to achieve economies of scale in capital and operating costs. SNNC now operates the world’s most powerful and productive ferro-nickel furnace, having a capacity of 94 MW / 120 MVA. The SNNC plant is located adjacent to POSCO’s steelworks in Gwangyang, Korea. POSCO, and SMSP, Société Minière du Sud Pacifique, co-own the facility.
The speed of the engineering, construction and production ramp up that SNNC has achieved is unprecedented in the ferro-nickel industry. The first metal tap from the furnace occurred 24 months from the start of engineering. Only 4 months thereafter, successful achievement of the furnace design power level and through-put performance tests were attained.
This paper describes the furnace, and the technical challenges overcome to achieve world-scale ferro-nickel production level in record time.
