THE 1993 REBUILD AND UPGRADE OF KALGOORLIE NICKEL SMELTER

In September 1993, the flash furnace at Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter, KNS , was brought off line after almost 12 years of operation. This is a r ecord campaign life for a flash furnace. The furnace was totally rebui lt and the capacity of the plant increased from 540 000 tpa to 750 000 tpa of concentrate throughput. The through-put increase was achieved through the construction of a 525 t/day oxygen plant and upgrading of various plant ancillaries. A number of significant design modification s were also built into the flash furnace and oxygen enrichment was imp lemented in the operation of the Peirce-Smith converters. This paper d iscusses the rebuilding of the flash furnace and design modification m ade to furnace equipment and ancillary plant. Some preliminary post-st artup operating data are presented.