Korea Zinc

Parent Company Korea Zinc Corporation (Korea)... 

Company Nama Kamioka Mining Smelting Co. Toho Zinc Co. Chigiriahima / Japan Hindustan Zinc Ltd. Chanderiya 1 India Korea Zinc Co., Ltd. Onaan / South Korea Auico Inc. Eiit Helm Plant / USA... 

Company Name Kamioka Mining Smelting Toho Zinc Co. Hindustan Zinc Ltd. Korea Zinc Co., Ltd. Asarco Inc. 

With the commissioning of the third Ausmelt technology smelter at Korea Zinc in Onsan, Ausmelt technology lead smelters will process high, medium and low grade feeds for a wide range of sulphide material blends. 

The afterburning reactions of zinc are more exothermic and a waste heat boiler type of offtake and roof system is recommended. This type of system is in successful use at Korea Zinc on zinc fuming plants. 

Key reasons for the selection of Ausmelt technology for lead smelting by Metaleurop, Tsumeb and Korea Zinc are the excellent environmental performance, capital and operating cost profiles and process flexibility provided in a compact high intensity smelter system. 

The main driving force for this development is the overall process improvement to be gained by removing many internal secondary recycle streams, thereby freeing the QSL smelter for primary lead smelting activities. This smelter is the third Ausmelt technology smelter installed at Korea Zinc s Onsan complex and will commence operations in the second half of... 

In the course of increasing the production ctq>acity of zinc at the Onsan Refinery from 50,000 tons per year in 1978, the first year of operation, to 350,000 tons per year in 1999, the treatment of iron-containing residue, which is currently a goethite residue, has been an important issue because of the limited space at the plant. Korea Zinc investigated the available technologies for a process that could produce an inert material and meet the limits of the pollution restrictions. The requirements for the new process installed at Korea Zinc were as follows ... 

The plant established a level of confidence that it can produce an inert clean slag for use in cement industries while recovering valuable metals as a fiune oxide. This successful result allowed Korea Zinc to build the second Ausmelt plant, the so called the Zinc Fuming Plant or the Zinc Fumer (1). 

Most lead concentrates contain a portion of zinc and vice versa, so that both metals are impurities from the viewpoint of the prime metal contained in the concentrates. Therefore, each smelting activity inevitably produces disposal materials containing the other metal. Korea Zinc has been committed to maximize metal recoveries in lead and zinc production and to reject all non-valuable materials in the concentrate feed in a stable form such as slag. In this respect, Korea Zinc has developed a concept integrating lead and zinc production plants as shown in Figure 1. 

Table V - Particle Size Analyses of Korea Zinc s Crushed Coals...

Lead Smelting Team, Annual Operation Result, Korea Zinc Internal Report. 2000. 

In April 1996, Korea Zinc acquired the zinc assets of Big River Minerals but retained the name of its new US subsidiary as the Big River Zinc Corporation. Korea Zinc saw in the Sauget refinery an opportunity for growth for the following reasons ... 

Members of the BRZ and Korea Zinc staffs soon developed an improvement program to once again expand and update the Sauget zinc refinery. This program consisted of two phases operating the existing equipment more efficiently to lower costs, improve product quality, and minimize environmental exposure then expanding production to a rate of 106,000 toimes per year. 

The third project involved replacing the equipment in the old casting dross plant. A new air swept ball mill designed by Korea Zinc was installed in place of the vertical ring mill. Dross from the main melting furnace is taken to the dross treatment plant and is put through the ball mill to separate particles of zinc metal from zinc oxide. The metal is remelted to make Prime Western or other low-grade alloys, whereas the zinc oxide is fed to the roasters. 

The authors would like to acknowledge the hard work of all of the BRZ employees who contributed to the success of the plant expansion projects. Special tq>preciation is extended to to Mr. K. W. Jeon of Korea Zinc who served as the on-site liaison between the two companies for over two years. 

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