Cominco Trail Operations

After a challenging start-up, Cominco s new lead smelter is a success. It has fully met the requirements for environmental performance, reduced energy consumption, and lowered labour costs. The new smelter has positioned Cominco Trail Operations well for the future and it is expected that further gains in throughput can be achieved through de-bottlenecking. 

Company Name Cominco Ltd. Trail Operations / Canada Doe Run Company (1,2) Herculaneum / USA Met-Mex Penoies, S.A. Torreon / Mexico Noranda Inc. Brunswick Smelter Berzelius Stolberg GmbH... 

Company Name Korea Zinc Co., Ltd. Onsan Cominco Ltd. Trail Operations... 

Incorporated in 1906, Cominco Limited is an integrated natural resource company whose principal activities are mineral exploration, mining, and metal production. Cominco is the world s largest zinc concentrate producer and is also a major producer of refined zinc metal. Trail Operations is vertically integrated with Cominco s zinc-lead mining activities. Trail s zinc and lead production facilities are also closely integrated, and are in effect a single operation. 

D. W. Ashman, O. J. Delong and W. A. Jankola, "Silica Control During Zinc Calcine Leaching at Cominco s Trail Operations", World Zinc 93. I. G. Matthew, Ed., The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Victoria, Australia, 1993,217-226. 

G. M. Belland, R. G. Pressacco and W. Van Beek, "Leaching Plant Flow and Level Control Optimization at Cominco s Trail Operations", Zinc and Lead 95. T. Azakami, Ni Masako, J.E. Dutrizac and E. Ozberk, Eds., Mining and Mineral Processing Institute of Japan, Tokyo, Japan, 1995, 599-611. 

M. J. Brown, E. T. de Groot, M. G. Heximer, A. J. Karges, G. N. Masuch and C. M. Okumura, "Zinc Capacity Increase at Cominco s Trail Operations", Zinc and Lead Processing. J. E. Dutrizac, J. A. Gonzalez, G. L. Bolton and P. Hancock, Eds., Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, Montreal, Canada, 1998,41-54. 

Crossflow ventilation is a technology that has been designed into the cellhouse structure in the past to reduce acid mist. Amplats Rustenberg plant in South Africa applied a cross flow principle first and this was applied on a larger scale at the zinc EW cellhouses in Canada (Cominco Trail in early 1980 s) and Kidd Creek. From the mid 1990 s until the more commonplace application of cell hoods, the large tankhouses in Chile typically used combinations of positive crossflow ventilation, balls and foams. The DESOM crossflow ventilation configuration, which became common practice in Chile, was first applied to the El Teniente SX-EW operation in 1985. Cerro Colorado, Quebrada Blanca, Chuqui SBL, Quebrada M and Escondida Coloso followed in 1994. 

Ashman, D W, Goosen, D W, Reynolds, D G and Webb, D J, 2000. Cominco s new lead smelter at Trail operations, in Proceedings Lead-Zinc 2000, TMS Symposium, pp 171-185. 

Commercialization of the ammonia process was pioneered by the Consolidated Mining Smelting Company, Ltd. (Cominco), which operated a 3 ton/day sulfur-producing pilot unit at their Trail plant in 1934 and placed a 40-ton/day commercial plant in operation in 1936 (King, 1950). The sulfur dioxide recovered in these early units was reduced to elemental sulfur. Later changes in the market picture made it more economical to use the concentrated sulfur dioxide streams as feed to sulfuric acid plants. Sulfur dioxide-absorption processes using both heat and acid neutralization were developed at Trail. Present operations use the neutralization process. 

Cominco [Consolidated Mining Smelting Company] A process for absorbing sulfur dioxide from smelting operations. The sulfur dioxide is absorbed in an aqueous solution of ammonium sulfite regeneration is by acidification with sulfuric acid. The ammonium sulfate byproduct is sold. Operated at the Cominco smelter at Trail, Canada, and at other smelters and sulfuric acid plants in the United States. Licensed by the Olin Mathieson Corporation. The name has been applied also to a lead extraction process. 

As part of the Manhattan District Project during World War II, a small plant to produce heavy water 6 Mg/a) was built by Standard Oil Development Co. at Trail, B.C. and was operated by Cominco from 1944 to 1956 (14). It was based on steam-hydrogen catalytic exchange plus steam-water equilibration coupled to water electrolysis. However, byproduct heavy water from this process is economic only if the electrolysis cost is borne by the hydrogen product, which at Trail was used for ammonia production. In any case, the small scale of operation imposed by electrolytic capacity and the large exchange tower volume have made this production method economically unattractive. 

LEACHING AND PURIHCATION AT COMINCO S TRAIL ZINC OPERATIONS... 

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