No report on acid supply shortfall

The keenly awaited Queensland Acid Study has some big questions to answer. Sulphuric acid is domestically manufactured at the Mount Isa Acid Plant and the Sun Metals zinc refinery in Townsville. Main image: Mount Isa Acid Plant Queensland is currently a net importer of sulphuric acid and the emerging vanadium mining industry is going to place a lot more pressure on future supplies. On top of this, The Mount Isa Copper Smelter which provides the feedstock for the acid plant, is scheduled for closure in 2030. Phosphate miner Incitec Pivot has rights to much of that production believed to be around a million tonnes/year. The shortfall of around 300,000 tonnes is sourced from Sun Metals. Sulphuric acid is otherwise used in heap leach operations. One of the larger Queensland consumers, Austral Resources, uses 125,000 tonnes/year on its Lady Annie copper operation near Mount Isa. Vanadium producers will also be needing supply. There’s a clutch of juniors miners with leases in the McKinlay and Richmond Shires along the Flinders Highway. The three leading companies Vecco, Richmond Vanadium and Multicom are expected to require significant volumes of sulphuric acid. Cobalt Blue is a Broken Hill-based company focused on the mine to battery strategy including mining, refining and recycling mine waste. Current and emerging acid consumption was around three million tonnes/year for Queensland said said Cobalt Blue Project Acquisition Manager, Dr Helen Degeling, leaving a gaping shortfall. Cobalt Blue’s elemental sulphur option meant more sulphuric acid could be manufactured locally, Dr Degeling said. “Pyrite does contain some metals, but it often ends up in the waste during mine processing,” she said. “It's difficult and expensive to break down, and the value proposition is not often there. “Cobalt blue has developed patented technology to break down that pyrite. We get the metals out, and that might be copper, but it could also be cobalt or nickel and a range of other metals that are often in those style of deposits. “Pyrite also contains iron and sulphur as a key part of the mineral matrix. “We've designed our flow sheet to generate elemental sulphur rather than sulfuric acid. And elemental sulphur is essentially just a yellow powder, which then, in order to transport, we do what we call ‘prilling’. “We 'prill' it where we turn it into small little yellow balls and then it can be transported safely. It's benign in the environment. “It doesn't react in the way that minerals like pyrite and other sulphide minerals do that can generate acid mine drainage if they're left in tailing facilities and not managed properly.” State Development Minister Grace Grace’s office has been contacted for comment on the release date for the Queensland Acid Study but failed to respond before publication.

No report on acid supply shortfall

Industry Queensland

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