Outotec announced on March 8 that it will design and deliver a new manganese sinter plant to the Kalagadi Manganese Pty. Ltd project at Hotazel in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province. The contract value is approximately €119 million. Kalagadi Manganese is 50% owned by the world's largest steel producer, ArcelorMittal, with Kalagadi Resources owning 40% and IDC 10% of the company.

Outotec is responsible for the delivery of the sinter plant on a turnkey basis including engineering, project management, supply of all equipment and structural steel, construction, commissioning as well as advisory services for civil works. The new plant will ultimately produce 2.4 million mt/y of sinter for the production of high carbon ferromanganese. Plant commissioning has been scheduled for March 2012.

Kalagadi’s new plant will be one of the world’s largest manganese sinter plants, said Pertti Korhonen, Outotec’s president and CEO.

A week earlier, on March 1, Outotec also announced that it had signed a contract with Codelco for design and delivery of a copper concentrate roasting plant, gas cleaning system and sulphuric acid plant for Codelco’s new Mina Ministro Hales mine close to Calama, Chile. The contract price is approximately €116 million.

The turnkey contract includes basic and detail engineering, proprietary and process equipment, installation and start up services. Outotec and Codelco also signed a Memo-
randum of Understanding for two years operation and maintenance of the new plant.

The new plant, which will treat up to 550,000 mt/y of copper concentrate and will produce approximately 250,000 mt/y of sulphuric acid, is scheduled to be commissioned in early 2012.

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