Equipment for processing copper-nickel concentrate was installed at the facilities of the Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant (part of Nornickel). This is the only enterprise in Russia where mixed smelting is used. After the completion of all assembly work, the furnace is being heated up and will soon begin producing finished products.
As noted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the new furnace was assembled "much ahead of schedule" — in just two months.
More than 3,000 people worked on the project. They were assisted by smart mechanisms: demolition robots and spider cranes. For the first time, artificial intelligence participated in the construction: a virtual assistant gave hints and controlled the pace of work.
The flash smelting furnace (PSF) is designed for processing copper-nickel concentrate, from which matte is obtained — the finished product of the Polar Division. Its construction began in 2023 on the site of the former PSF-2, which was completely demolished. The company's investments in the project amounted to more than 21 billion rubles.
The PSF components, weighing about 3,500 tons, were delivered to Norilsk in disassembled form. The assembly of the facility, which is the height of a nine-story building, in the smelting shop was carried out in three shifts.
The new PSF received:
- the latest achievements in flash smelting technology;
- increased reliability of the main and auxiliary equipment;
- modern solutions in the field of automation;
- a modified design of the body and waste-heat boiler, which will increase the extraction of non-ferrous metals by reducing the volume of dust in the exhaust gases.
Structurally, the furnace will appear in a new design. The height of the uptake will decrease, the reaction shaft, on the contrary, will increase. The geometry of both the waste-heat boiler and the furnace settler will change. Due to these changes, the gas dynamics of the exhaust gases will improve. And most importantly, we are increasing the efficiency of nickel concentrate processing and increasing the reliability of the second technological line, both with the current raw material composition and with the future one.
As noted in Nornickel at the start of work, such a furnace will be able to process concentrates with a lower sulfur content at loads from 100 to 240 tons per hour without losing the quality of matte and slag. Its launch will help reduce unplanned downtime and increase the stability of the pyrometallurgical conversion of the enterprise.
Earlier, the Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that Russia will increase the production of rare and rare earth metals eightfold in the coming years. By 2030, the share of imports in their consumption will be only 15%.
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