The 2004 Extraction and Processing Lecture

The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society

Converting an Idea into a Worldwide Business
Commercializing Smelting Technology

J.M. FLOYD

Pyrometallurgy is an ancient art which has defined significant stages of human development. Today,
new opportunities for improvements in the economic, environmental, and workplace costs of metal
production continue to provide challenges for the profession and industry. Top-submerged lancing
technology for the high-temperature processing of a range of metals and wastes is an example that has
been taken up by many companies around the world. The furnace system now marketed under the names
of Ausmelt and Isasmelt was, in the early stage of its 33 years of development, known as Sirosmelt. The
voyage from the original idea through theoretical, laboratory, pilot plant, and commercial develop-
ments to establishment of a worldwide business has been both stimulating and rewarding.

I. STATUS OF TOP-SUBMERGED LANCING The reactor is used for mainstream smelters or for by-product
TECHNOLOGY or waste treatment in production of tin, copper, nickel, lead,
platinum-group metals, zinc, and aluminum. The furnace is
THE Top-Submerged Lancing (TSL) system was devel- tightly sealed and feeds require little or no pretreatment,
oped over more than 30 years by CSIRO (where it was called which makes the system particularly suitable for improving
High-Temperature Submerged Combustion, then Sirosmelt), the environmental performance of smelting and for the recycle
Ausmelt, and Mount Isa Mines (Isasmelt). Isasmelt now forms of hazardous wastes. Plants in Korea, Japan, and Australia
part of Xstrata Technology. At present, there are in opera- process metallurgical waste material to recover values and
tion or under design and construction 35 furnaces in 23 loca- produce useable waste products, and in Seoul a plant is being
tions in 14 countries. Capacities of units range from less than built to process municipal waste incinerator ash.
10,000 tons per annum (tpa) to more than 800,000 tpa of Ausmelt has adapted the TSL approach to a new process
feed, with a total processing capacity of about 6 million tpa. called AusIron for smelting iron ore and wastes to produce
iron. A demonstration plant in South Australia has been
operated successfully at an iron production rate equivalent to
15,000 tpa, and commercial developments are being considered.
The Extraction and Processing Lecturer Award honors an outstanding
scientific leader in the field of nonferrous extractive metallurgy with an
invitation to present a comprehensive lecture at the TMS Annual Meeting. II. OUTLINE OF THE TSL SMELTING SYSTEM
John Floyd is Deputy Chair, Ausmelt Limited, Australia. He earned
his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Melbourne, Ph.D. from London The TSL system is a bath smelting technology which
University, and DIC from Imperial College. Dr. Floyd has authored or
co-authored more than 70 published technical articles and has invented or employs an upright cylindrical furnace with a central lance
co-invented 15 patented process or equipment inventions in the extractive injecting fuel air and oxygen into a slag bath. The lance can
metallurgy and high-temperature processing plant areas. be operated under oxidizing, neutral, or reducing conditions

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005—557

to provide for control of the slag chemistry at the lance tip layer of slag before lowering into the slag bath and then is
and gas-rise region of the slag bath. The slags used for non- operated with a submergence of about 100 to 500 mm in a
ferrous processing applications generally are solutions of bath of 800 to 2000 mm depth, depending on the requirements
the oxides of iron, calcium, silicon, and aluminum. The com- of the application. Feed material is usually passed through a
position is controlled primarily to remove the unwanted com- sealed port in the top of the furnace. The system can accept
ponents in the feed to the furnace, with fluxing employed lump, fine, dry, or wet feed, so that feed preparation require-
to provide the required viscosity at the chosen temperature ments are minimal.
of operation. The furnace possesses essentially five different reaction
Figure 1 illustrates the features of the Ausmelt TSL tech- regions.
nology. In operation, the lance is splash-coated with a solidified
(1) The combustion region at the tip of the lance, where the
gas and fuel (and sometimes feed) are injected down-
ward into the slag bath. As mentioned earlier, this region
can be oxidizing, reducing, or neutral, depending on the
rates of fuel air and oxygen supplied to the lance.
(2) The gas-rise region above the tip of the lance, where
gases generated and any solid unreacted feed material
at the lance tip further react with each other and the sur-
rounding and entrained slag.
(3) The splash-cascade region, where liquid slag ejected above
the bath by the rising gas volume falls back into the slag
bath and carries out physical and chemical processes with
the material fed from the top of the furnace.
(4) The postcombustion region, where air and/or oxygen is
injected into the splash region of the gas space above
the bath.
(5) The bath region significantly beneath the lance-tip level,
which is relatively quiescent compared with the vio-
lently agitated top region of the bath.

The TSL furnace has other features and facilities in com-

mon with other furnace systems—flue offtake, various ports,
tapholes or tapping weirs, refractory or cooled containment
systems, etc.
The capability of removing the lance, or of adjusting the
depth of submergence of the lance in the bath, allows the
operator to control the degree of turbulence in the bath and
the extent of splashing of the slag cascade above the bath.
The operator can also stop and start the furnace operations
with little or no delay. The furnace can be put on standby
at any time for as long as required by removing the lance
and starting the standby burner system. This burner system
is also used to initially heat the furnace at the start of a
campaign and to cool the furnace under controlled
conditions.

III. USES OF TSL TECHNOLOGY IN METAL

EXTRACTION
As already described briefly, the operating conditions
in the TSL furnace system are readily controllable by the
operator. Assuming that ancillary facilities are designed
and engineered appropriately, the furnace can be operated
under conditions which are in the range of strongly oxi-
dizing, through neutral, to strongly reducing. Furthermore,
the operator is able to operate at least three regions in
the furnace under different conditions: the lance tip, the
postcombustion region, and the surface region, where feed
materials are reacting with the slag in a cascade of liquid
slag. The furnace can also be operated over a wide range
Fig. 1—Schematic of Ausmelt furnace. of temperatures.

558—VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005 METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B

 TSL furnaces have been established for both continuous way ahead for the industry in managing the environmental
operations under steady-state conditions in one furnace, such impact of base metal smelting.
as for clean copper-concentrate smelting, or in two furnaces Table I gives details of the various Ausmelt TSL furnaces
in series, as in copper smelting and converting and in pro- used commercially (or under construction) for processing of
cessing zinc leach residues or slags. It can also be used for primary and secondary materials in the production of tin,
batch operations involving two or more different stages oper- copper, lead, zinc, nickel, and platinum-group metals. Also
ated under different conditions, for example, in tin smelting seen in Table I are plants for processing hazardous wastes.
and tin slag reduction. More plants are built every year, and most of the recently
The ability of the furnace to be operated under this wide built lead, copper, and tin smelters have employed TSL tech-
range of conditions has given the technology a broad range nology. The technology offers a number of advantages over
of applications. existing and alternative technologies, including the following:
The metal producer with by far the greatest number of
operating TSL furnaces is Korea Zinc Company, with five (1) low capital and operating costs;
plants processing wastes or intermediate material from the (2) the flexibility to handle different feeds;
zinc smelter at Onsan, Korea. The metals recovered in these (3) tight environmental controls;
Ausmelt Technology systems are mainly zinc, lead, and cop- (4) operable in batch, semibatch, or continuous operations
per, but minor metals and steam production are significant with one or more furnaces; and
in the economic balance. The ability of the Onsan plant to (5) efficient and easily operable on a large scale (e.g., greater
avoid waste production by recycling the heavy metals and than a half million tpa of feed) and a small scale (e.g.,
producing a clean, useable slag product is a pointer to the less than 10,000 tpa of feed).

Table I. Ausmelt Commercial TSL Plants around the World

Annual Temperature
Client Location Starting Year Feed Type Throughput (t/y) Product Range (°C) Fuel
Star Project Chelyabinsk, 2004 Cu concentrates 500,000 Cu matte 1180 natural gas
Russia
Hindustan Zinc Chanderiya, 2004 Pb concentrates 85,000 Pb bullion 1050 to 1200 light/heavy
Limited India furnace oil
Korea Zinc Onsan, South 2004 Cu residues 70,000 Cu matte 1180 coal
Korea
MAPO Project Seoul, South 2004 Municipal Waste 10,000 Zn fume 1200 coal
Korea Incinerator Ash
Birla Copper Dahej, India 2003 (F1) Cu concentrates
350,000 Cu matte 1180 coal
(two furnaces) 2003 (F3) Cu matte
160,000 blister Cu 1250 coal
Anhui Tongdu Tongling City, 2003 Cu concentrates 330,000 Cu matte 1180 heavy furnace
Copper China oil/coal
Amplats Rustenburg, 2002 (F1) granulated 213,000 high-grade 1300 coal
(two furnaces) South Africa 2004 (F2) Ni/Cu/PGM matte Ni/Cu matte
Korea Zinc Onsan, South 2003 (F1) Pb tailings 100,000 Pb fume 1200 coal
(two furnaces) Korea 2003 (F2) F1 slag (liquid) 80,000 Pb/Zn fume 1250 coal
Yunnan Tin Gejiu City, 2002 Sn concentrates 50,000 Sn metal 1150 to 1250 coal
Corporation China
Korea Zinc Onsan, South 2000 Pb concentrates 100,000 Pb bullion and 1000 coal
Korea and secondaries fume
Zhong Tiao Shan Houma City, 1999 (F1) Cu concentrates 200,000 Cu matte 1180 coal
(two furnaces) China 1999 (F2) Cu matte 60,000 blister Cu 1250 coal
Portland Portland, 1997 spent-pot lining 12,000 AlF3 1250 natural gas
Aluminum/ Australia
Alcoa
Minsur Pisco, Peru 1996 Sn concentrates 70,000 Sn metal 1150 to 1300 bunker C oil
Metaleurop Nordenham, 1996 battery paste/ 200,000 Pb bullion 950 to 1250 natural gas
Germany Pb cons
Korea Zinc Onsan, South 1995 zinc leach 120,000 Zn/Pb fume 1250 to 1300 coal
(two furnaces) Korea residue
1995 F1 slag (liquid) 100,000 Zn fume 1250 to 1300 coal
Mitsui Hachinohe, Japan 1993 (F1) ISF slag 80,000 Zn fume 1300 to 1350 heavy oil
(two furnaces) 2002 (F2) F1 slag (liquid) 80,000 Zn fume 1300 to 1350 heavy oil
Korea Zinc Onsan, South 1992 (F1) QSL furnace 100,000 Zn/Pb fume 1300 coal
(two furnaces) Korea slag (liquid)
2001 (F2) F1 slag 90,000 Zn fume 1300 coal
Rio Tinto Eiffel Flats, 1992 leach residue 7,700 high grade 1250 to 1350 coal
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Cu/Ni matte

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 IV. DEVELOPMENT PHASES OF THE
TECHNOLOGY, THE MARKET, AND
THE COMPANY
A. The Idea—Late 1970 to Mid-1971
As with all developments, TSL started with an idea, and,
as with many ideas, this one started with a problem.
Dr. T.R.A. (Ron) Davey of CSIRO in Melbourne wrote
to me in the late 1960s at Imperial College, London, while
I was completing my Ph.D. research into oxygen diffusion
in solid oxide electrolytes.[1] He told me that the trials of a
rotary furnace tin smelting process he was developing had
not achieved the reduction of liquid slag in small-scale trials
or in full-scale tests in Germany. I had worked with
Dr. Davey on the process[2] for a short period to earn enough
money to travel to England to try for a Ph.D. place at Impe-
rial College.
Although my Ph.D. research had no direct relevance to
pyrometallurgy, I understood what Dr. Davey was attempting
to achieve and wrote back to him suggesting that he try
injection of gas into the liquid slag bath to improve mixing
and, thereby, enhance the rate of reduction of dissolved stan-
nous oxide. The idea stemmed from work by other Ph.D.
researchers at Imperial College on improved mixing achieved
by gas sparging into aqueous systems and the turbulence
and surface agitation in top jetting during oxygen steel-
making.
In December 1970, I took up an appointment in CSIRO’s
Division of Chemical Engineering in Melbourne. Dr Davey Fig. 2—Top-submerged lancing idea—testwork rig (500-g crucible apparatus).
was then on the staff of Colorado School of Mines, and the
Chief of the Division, Dr. Clive Pratt, asked me to examine
the tin smelting project to see whether the problems encoun- vious experiments to guide the selection of conditions for
tered could be overcome. The process hinged on the ability further experiments and, by this technique, zero-in on the
to reduce tin oxide dissolved in liquid slag to recover tin as optimum conditions for the process. I estimated that this
a liquid alloy with the iron, which would also be partly continuous targeting approach would still require about 60
reduced. The rotary furnace using solid carbonaceous reduc- experiments to evaluate all important variables and that, with
tants had failed to reduce sufficient tin to make the process the limited analytical capacity, it would still take 18 months
viable. The rotation of the furnace did not give adequate before I could propose a feasible process. This slow progress
mixing of the slag with the reductant, and I decided to try toward a novel approach to tin smelting was not practica-
injection of reductants into the bath. Dr. Davey had not taken ble, so I established my own titrimetric analytical facilities
up my earlier suggestion, so testwork was needed to eval- for tin, iron, and other components of the concentrates, slag,
uate the idea. The division had recently moved to a new metal, and other phases involved in the work.
location, and smelting research facilities had not been set I refined the time-consuming tin analytical procedure to
up. Most of the division’s research effort was then aimed decrease the time required from more than 1 day to one-half
at mineral separation and concentration, and the small High- of a day, which allowed me to complete an experiment,
Temperature Processing Group was engaged in a promising including the critical assays, in 1 day. This allowed four or
refining process development. There were no funds available five experiments to be carried out each week.
for me to take on an assistant, and I started out alone to set In 6 months, I saw that the idea was feasible, and I needed
up facilities for crucible-scale test work. Figure 2 shows the to move to larger-scale test work to further evaluate a pos-
simple test rig, in which initial experiments showed that sible process. Funds were made available to recruit a Tech-
the idea had promise. nical Assistant to help in the project, and we installed and
Progress with the test work was slow because the divi- commissioned the rotary furnace which had been in storage.
sion’s analytical laboratory was already almost fully com- Facilities, including ceramic injection tubes, were established
mitted to other projects and could only provide the assay to inject natural gas and entrained brown coal char into the
results for one experiment a week. The fashion in experi- 50 kg liquid slag bath of the rotary furnace.
mental design at that time was to establish a matrix of all The trials were unsuccessful. Injection of reductants through
possible experimental conditions, then to carry out all experi- two ceramic lances from either end of the rotary furnace caused
ments in the matrix and evaluate the results statistically. I the reduction of tin in slag from about 10 to 15 pct to 5 to
thought this unsuitable to my situation, since it would take 10 pct in about 30 minutes, and then the reduction stopped.
many years before I could tell whether there was a potential The slag at the tip of the lances was over-reduced to produce
process which might result from the idea. I therefore set up solid high-iron, tin-iron alloy, and a high-melting-point slag,
an experimental program which used the results of the pre- which was also solid. The remainder of the slag bath was not

560—VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005 METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B

reduced further, because the reductants channeled through gas
cavities in the solidified mass at the lance tips. The crucible-
scale tests had not suffered from this problem, and it was appar-
ent that the geometry of the rotary furnace bath, with a small
depth and large surface area, was not suitable to achieve the
necessary mixing of the whole bath by the injected gas.
I concluded that a different geometry was required and
that a vertical cylinder of 300 mm in diameter and 300 mm
in depth, with a top-submerged injection lance, would be
more appropriate. No reactor of this type was in use in the
metallurgical industry, and I now had a much more chal-
lenging development project requiring design and trial of a
submerged combustion system to provide the heat require-
ments of the process and to also provide the strong reducing Fig. 3—First CSIRO pilot rig. The original rotary furnace is shown with,
conditions needed to reduce tin and some iron from tin smelt- beside it, the 44-gallon drum furnace.
ing slags. These slags would be generated either in other
conventional tin smelting furnaces (reverberatory, electric, Results achieved with the rig were immediately encouraging,
or rotary furnaces) or in a new submerged concentrate smelt- and I started looking for a route to commercialization. I wrote
ing process in the new reactor. an article with a Chemical Engineer working on other pro-
jects in the division (Jim Thurlby) on the industrial use of the
B. The CSIRO Development Phase—1971 to 1981 technology[4] and went to visit Associated Tin Smelters (ATS)
in Sydney to discuss possible plant developments. The man-
This radical development proposal followed almost a year ager of ATS at the time regarded water and oxygen as dan-
of work that had led to failure of trials in the rotary furnace. gerous in a tin smelter and told me that he would not allow
Clearly, the new proposal would be more demanding of water-cooled lances or oxygen injection to be used in his plant.
resources funding, staff, and time, when divisional funding I redesigned the lance to provide cooling by injected air
was still very limited for the smelting area. The expenditure and operated the plant without oxygen in further develop-
of CSIRO resources in tin smelting was also brought into mental trials on the recovery of tin, copper, nickel, and
question because of the relatively small production of tin lead from slags. By concentrating on slag processing, the
in Australia compared with other base metals and because technology could be used in smelting plants to improve metal
the future of the tin industry was questioned by senior CSIRO recovery and to lower costs without the large investment
staff after learning of the report to the Club of Rome enti- and risk involved in replacing the primary smelting unit.
tled “The Limits of Growth.”[3] Further articles were written on tin smelting and other appli-
My reaction to this was to hold a meeting of interested cations of the technology.[5–6] The CSIRO awarded Develop-
CSIRO staff to show that the value of tin production to ment Pool Funding for the project to assist in commercializing
industry in Australia and to export earnings was sufficient the development. These funds were used to employ an Experi-
to justify the development, provided the resources of time, mental Officer, Mr. David Conochie, a Master Graduate from
people, and funds were not excessive. I also started work University of Melbourne and two Technical Assistants, one of
on evaluating the use of the technology for applications in whom, Mr. Brian Lightfoot, contributed to all stages of the
the production of copper, lead, nickel, and other metals. Fur- technology and continues today to be involved with Ausmelt
ther work had to be done quickly, on a broader front, with projects. The pilot plant facilities were also upgraded to improve
minimal funds and without further staffing. the controllability and reliability of the system.
I built a pilot plant of the minimum size capable of sus- The work was becoming of interest to Australian industry,
taining its high-temperature operations by submerged com- and we examined ways to assist smelters to allow larger or
bustion with submersible lance without the use of any more relevant trials to be carried out at industrial sites. For
external heating system (i.e., a true pilot plant with all of this purpose we built a 50-kg rig which could be transported
the features needed in a commercial plant). to smelters to allow greater involvement of smelter staff in
I used existing facilities and did as much work as possible trials on their materials.
myself. For instance, I found that the furnace shell size I recognized the need for three areas of Research and
was the same as a 44-gallon drum (United States 55-gallon Development (R&D) to achieve success in commercializing
drum) and applied my previous experience as a bricklayer a new process. I established a work model for my team
to install the refractory brick lining of the 44-gallon drum which involved each member having three areas of activity
reactor. The first lances designed by me and made up in to be carried out, with time and opportunity determining the
the Divisional Workshop were water cooled and used priority to be given to each. The following areas were to be
pure oxygen to combust the natural gas fuel and reductant. given attention and progressed in parallel:
The gas handling and liquid-product handling system for the
rotary furnace were used for the high-temperature submerged (1) theoretical and basic studies within CSIRO (e.g., water
combustion reactor. Initially, the lance handling was done modeling of flow and mixing), as shown in Figure 4;
manually, with my own arm! (2) crucible or pilot plant work on technical and efficiency
The first trial was successful in reducing the tin slag, and aspects of processes and equipment (e.g., industrial plant
I was able to spend some funds on a simple lance-handling evaluations in the transportable 50-kg rig), as shown in
facility (Figure 3). Figure 5; and

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005—561

 Fig. 5—Industrial evaluation in the transportable 50-kg rig.

Fig. 4—Water modeling.

(3) commercial industrial evaluations of processes and equip-

ment, as shown in Figure 6.
Patents were taken out on the lance system and some of
the processes developed in order to assist in protecting the
intellectual property.[7,8,9]
Pilot plant and commercial developments were pursued
with the CSIRO team working at a number of metallurgi-
cal plants in Australia.

Broken Hill Associated Smelters, Port Pirie, South

Australia—1974. The transportable 50 kg-rig was taken by
truck and set up at Broken Hill Associated Smelters (BHAS),
Port Pirie, to take liquid antimony–lead slag from the
softening furnace and reduce it in two stages to produce lead Fig. 6—One-ton pilot-plant trials at ATS.
bullion for recycle and lead-antimony alloy for marketing.
The plant operated successfully in its two weeks of operation Tolley. Rod saw the potential for what we were doing and
and demonstrated good control and very good separation in 1974 agreed to let us on his plant as long as it did not
of antimony and arsenic from the lead circuit.[10] require investment by his company or cause interruption to
his production. He had a refractory-lined ladle used for
Associated Tin Smelters, Sydney, New South Wales—1974 transporting tin-iron alloy in the plant, which he loaned to
and 1977. Tin-slag reduction work in the pilot plant in us for a two-week period while the No. 4 reverberatory
CSIRO was successful;[11] however, we needed to prove the furnace was being relined. At that time there was a baghouse
system in an industrial environment. The tin smelter in we could use and enough ducting in the store yard to connect
Sydney had a new, young, and enthusiastic manager in Rod it to a trial furnace at the crane aisle of the No. 4 furnace.

562—VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005 METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B

Back at CSIRO, the team designed and built a lid for the The Electrolytic Refining and Smelting Company (ER&S),
ladle with ports for three lances, a feed entry, and a flue Port Kembla, New South Wales—1975. A 1-ton-capacity rig
offtake. Lances for oil and coal combustion and appropriate was built in the Peirce–Smith converter aisle of the ER&S
lance controls and handling gear were designed and built. copper smelter and used to demonstrate the reduction of copper
The plant was then assembled at Associated Tin Smelters from batches of liquid slag from the converters. Both copper
(ATS) with the help of their staff and workers and operated and zinc were recovered efficiently from the slag after some
successfully over a 1-week period to reduce tin from liquid modification of the rig and process to solve early difficulties.
slag and prove the process and equipment.[11] This was the first purpose-built larger pilot plant, and a single
Figure 6 shows the plant in operation at the end of lance was used. Scale-up of the lance required significant
the aisle of the No. 4 reverberatory furnace. Three lances modifications during the trials. Figure 9 shows the furnace being
(Figure 7) were used for the plant to provide the required filled with converter slag from the ladle in the converter aisle.
turbulence in the reactor, since the loaned ladle was of
larger diameter than was suitable for operation with a single
Copper Refineries, Townsville, Queensland—1976. The
lance.
transportable 50-kg rig was installed in the refinery and
This work was followed in 1977 by the design, construction,
successfully used to produce copper metal for recycle from
and successful operation of a 6-ton-capacity commercial plant
anode furnace slag. A 1-ton-capacity pilot plant was subse-
processing batches of liquid slag from the existing reverber-
quently built and operated successfully at the Townsville
atory furnaces[12] (Figure 8). Mr. Bill Edwards was then the
refinery.[13]
manager of the plant, and I am greatly indebted to him for
being the first person responsible for establishing a commercial
TSL reactor. The plant had a second furnace built to increase Mount Isa Mines, Mount Isa, Queensland—1978. Mount
capacity, and the slag reduction continued as part of the plant Isa Mines (MIM) relocated the 1-ton-capacity plant from
until it was closed after the collapse of the tin price in the Townsville to Mount Isa to carry out successful trials on
mid-1980s. cleaning of converter slag in the converter aisle.[13]

Fig. 7—Three lances used in the ATS pilot plant to give sufficient mix-
ing in the large-diameter ladle used for the furnace.

Fig. 8—Commercial tin slag reduction plant at ATS. Fig. 9—Filling the ER&S 1-ton plant with liquid-copper converter slag.

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005—563

 Aberfoyle Limited, Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter, Western An incident which caused a temporary halt to develop-
Australia—1978 and 1979. Following three successful 50-kg ment in the pilot plant should be mentioned, since it led to
trials at CSIRO,[14] Aberfoyle Limited built a 4-tons/hour the spotlight being put on the project and would have caused
pilot plant at Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter (Figure 10(a)) to problems for CISRO people responsible for risks and costs
fume tin from a pyritic ore. This plant was operated through of development work.
to 1982 and achieved good results for both pyritic ore and While working on the pilot plant, the lance became
a copper-sulfide concentrate containing significant levels blocked at the tip, and the subsequent series of events caused
of tin.[15] me to be hit by a liter or so of burning fuel oil. Quick action
by Brian Lightfoot extinguished the flames and I was not
burnt. The incident demonstrated that our safety clothing
MIM, Mount Isa, Queensland—1980. Following successful and procedures were effective. An analysis of this series of
crucible-scale development of a lead smelting process using events indicated a very low probability of a repeat episode.
MIM concentrates at CSIRO, MIM established a 120-kg- Nevertheless, it was incumbent on us to carry out a thor-
capacity pilot plant to further investigate the lead smelting ough safety check and to put in modifications to the system.
process. This was costly and caused a halt to pilot work for a num-
My CSIRO team was closely involved in all of these plant ber of months before trials were restarted on the upgraded
designs, constructions, and operational planning and per- and improved rig.
formance. Over the same period there were also a wide range I was very happy with the CSIRO working environment
of other processes investigated in the crucible and pilot-plant and with the industrial collaboration achieved and was
rig in CSIRO, including copper concentrate smelting and pleased with the progress being made in the industrial use
matte converting to blister copper. The small pilot plant was of the technology. I thought that the establishment of a suc-
successfully operated on direct smelting of chalcopyrite con- cessful industrial plant using a revolutionary new smelting
centrate to blister copper, as well as three-stage processing process which I had thought up, tested, patented, and devel-
to matte, then white metal, then blister copper.[16] oped in a period of 6 years was a good outcome. The other
processes being developed in laboratory and pilot plants and
trialed in commercial plants bode well for the future of the
technology. The first 10 years of the development of TSL
was described in more detail in an article by Floyd and
Conochie.[17]
Table II lists the people in CSIRO and industry who were
most significant in helping me to achieve success in the
CSIRO development phase.
My work was criticized by some senior technical people
in the industry in Australia who believed that there was no
company in Australia capable of commercializing a new
smelting development. It was regarded as too expensive and
too long-term for our industry. I was also criticized by the
Chief of my division of CSIRO for working too closely with
industry. We advertised for an Australian company to take
up the rights to develop and commercialize the technology.
There was only one interested party, and he would only take
(a) it up if CSIRO would second me to his site and continue to
pay my salary. The Chief would not agree to this and told

Table II. The Most Significant Contributors to Success

During the CSIRO Development Phase—1973 to 1981

Mr. Brian Lightfoot CSIRO team and Aberfoyle tin fumer

Dr. David Conochie CSIRO team and Aberfoyle tin fumer
Mr. Rod Tolley ATS Managing Director—tin slag
reduction pilot plant
Mr. Bill Edmonds ATS General Manager—commercial
tin slag reduction plant
Mr. Doug Gallagher ER&S R&D Manager—copper slag
reduction pilot plant
Mr. Denby Ward BHAS R&D Manager—antimonial
slag pilot work
(b) Mr. Kevin Foo Aberfoyle Development Metallurgist—
process development and 4-ton/h
Fig. 10—(a) Aberfoyle 4 ton/h tin matte fuming plant built and operated tin fuming plant
at Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter. (b) Olympic Dam pilot plant used to pro- Mr. Jim Fewings MIM R&D Manager—copper slag
duce a range of slags while smelting to matte, then for converting the matte cleaning and lead smelting pilot plants
to blister copper.

564—VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005 METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B

 Table III. Main Plant and Process Developments during the CSIRO Development Phase

Patent Lab 50-kg Rig Large Pilot Plant Commercial

1. Plant Developments
A. Top-submerged lance reactor system 1 1 1 1
B. Water-cooled lance for submerged injection of oxygen/fuel 1
C. Air-cooled lance for submerged injection of air/oxygen/fuel 1 1 1 1
D. Submerged combustion systems fired with:
1. Natural gas 1 1
2. Light fuel oil 1 1 1
3. Fine coal 1 1 1
4. Heavy fuel oil 1
5. LPG 1
E. Multiple lance furnace 1
F. Lances in reverberatory furnace 1
2. Process Developments
2.1 Tin slag reduction 1 1 1 1 1
2.2 Tin concentrate smelting 1 1 1 1
2.3 Tin ore or concentrate fuming 1 1 1 1
2.4 Reduction of antimonial slag in two stages 1 1
2.5 Lead slag reduction 1 1 1
2.6 Lead concentrate smelting 1 1 1
2.7 Copper smelter and converter slag cleaning 1 1 1
2.8 Anode furnace slag reduction 1 1 1
2.9 Copper concentrate smelting 1 1
2.10 Matte converting to blister copper 1 1
2.11 Nickel slag reduction 1 1 1

me that if there was no other group prepared to fund the and development of the company. We undertook this, despite
development, I would have to stop the Sirosmelt work and the lack of financial backing and with little money in the bank
find a new research project. to support the business, as well as having a family with four
Table III lists the main plant and process developments young children: the youngest, Eliza, was only 1 year old.
carried out during the CSIRO development phase. Without the full support of Carolyn, it could not have worked.
We did achieve the transition. In the process, we had the
satisfaction of seeing great technical achievements over the
C. Ausmelt Development Phase—1981 to 1990
years, as well as seeing the company mature to a success-
On June 30, 1981, I resigned from CSIRO, and on July, ful public company with an international presence and recog-
17, 1981 my wife, Carolyn, and I registered Ausmelt Pty Ltd. nition, as demonstrated by a number of awards given to the
I set out to develop and commercialize the technology as an company and to me.
independent consultant to industry. Our plans included the The first year or so of Ausmelt’s business involved me
establishment of our own TSL pilot plant, with the ultimate consulting to the three companies then involved in the tech-
aim to set up our own commercial operations for processing nology: ATS, Aberfoyle Limited, and MIM.
secondary and problematic materials which were being stock- These three companies were continuing work done in
piled at smelters. By cashing in my superannuation, we could the CSIRO development phase and, according to the agree-
plan on surviving for about 6 months if my services were ment CSIRO had reached with Ausmelt, all had the same
not needed by industry. marketing and development rights as Ausmelt. It would make
I wrote to CSIRO to request the rights to market and great sense to form a consortium with these companies to
develop the technology, and, after prolonged consideration, jointly carry out the marketing and development of the tech-
they gave me a letter giving me the nonexclusive rights to nology, and I called a meeting of them and CSIRO to this
provide the technology to third parties, who would have to end. All declined to form a consortium because they did not
take out a license from CSIRO. regard technology marketing and commercialization as their
In the interim, I had received notification that CSIRO business. CSIRO regarded it as contrary to their policy; ATS
would continue to provide laboratory, pilot-plant testwork, and Aberfoyle were only interested in their own use of the
and advice on TSL to anyone who requested them. The technology; and MIM said they did not regard the process
CSIRO position was that they would not provide any help as having promise for commercial use and were only using
to Ausmelt, they would assist anyone to compete, and, in the development work by their R&D group to keep abreast
fact, CSIRO would compete directly with Ausmelt in pro- of developments in technology by overseas companies.
viding services. This was not an auspicious start for the The first overseas assignment was with Bamangwat.
enterprise. Concessions Limited (BCL), Botswana, where a lance was
The change from a secure and permanent position in a large tried in the bath of the nickel flash smelter to remove
government R&D organization to working for myself in pri- accretions and assist in cobalt recovery.
vate enterprise was not a step I took lightly. My wife, Car- Greenbushes Tin operated a tin mine and small smelter
olyn, supported me completely and assisted in the operations in Western Australia, and we were given a contract to

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005—565

develop and supply a small Ausmelt reactor to assist in pro-
cessing tin concentrates containing tantalum and antimony.
Roxby Management Services (RMS) was developing the
processing plant for the South Australian copper-uranium
mine at Olympic Dam. Ausmelt was employed to evaluate
the technology to smelt their concentrates to produce a range
of slags simulating those which would be produced if RMS
installed a smelter using one of a number of possible tech-
nologies, such as Outokumpu, Noranda, Electric Furnace,
etc. Ausmelt Technology was chosen for this evaluation
because of its flexibility, but was excluded from consider-
ation for the commercial smelter because there was no cop-
per smelter then in operation using the technology at
commercial scale. The aim of the work was to produce a
range of slags for pilot-plant evaluation of a uranium leach-
ing process. Laboratory-scale tests and 50-kg pilot-plant tri-
als (in the CSIRO rig leased to Ausmelt) successfully smelted
the concentrates to produce high-grade matte and the range
of slag compositions required. The pilot work was also
extended to convert the matte to blister copper. One trial of
direct smelting to blister copper also showed that the tech-
nology could be used in this mode of operation for the
Olympic Dam concentrates.
A large pilot plant was designed, built, commissioned,
and operated for several months at Olympic Dam using
Ausmelt’s services.[18] After production of the required range
and tonnage of slags for the leaching trials, the matte produced,
averaging approximately 70 pct Cu, was converted through
to blister copper in the Ausmelt reactor. Figure 10(b) shows
the pilot plant in operation. Figure 11 shows the slag-coated
lance being raised from the furnace.
While these projects were in progress, I become involved
in lecturing to the last classes of metallurgy to pass through
the Department of Mining and Metallurgy at the University Fig. 11—Slag-coated lance being raised from the Olympic Dam reactor.
of Melbourne. The University had closed the department in
1981, and I was contracted for one day a week, giving chem- On taking on the University research development task,
ical and extractive metallurgy courses and supervising post- I asked Brian Lightfoot, who was then with Aberfoyle Lim-
graduate students. In 1983 the University established a new ited, to take on the management of Ausmelt. He joined the
position of Professorial Research Fellow to provide leader- company as its first full-time employee and has been involved
ship in continuing extractive metallurgy industrial research in the company’s expansion and development ever since then.
links with the Chemical Engineering Department. The Extrac- Australia lacked a venture capital industry before the
tive staff, including Dr. Neil Gray and Dr. Madhu Nilmani, 1980s, and the federal government initiated a scheme (the
had transferred to the department, and Australian industrial MIC Scheme) to encourage companies to become involved
leaders had urged the University to provide for ongoing in providing capital for start-up companies to achieve a viable
research activities. I was appointed to this position on a four- scale of operation.
day-week basis. I spent the remainder of my time on Aus- The Pratt-Group MIC Company, Australian Pacific Tech-
melt business. The University provided only the position nology, invested about a quarter of a million dollars to add
and a modest initial equipment grant, which I used to estab- to equity funds from myself and Brian Lightfoot to build a
lish a versatile induction furnace experimental facility to add pilot plant in Dandenong, Victoria. The pilot plant was started
to the substantial equipment from the old department, housed up in 1985 and was used for extensive process and equipment
in a “hot laboratory.” Funds from industry and research developments during the 1980s and 1990s. It was also used
granting bodies were used to take on staff and postgraduate for commercial operations on precious-metal recovery from
students, and we formed the G.K. Williams Research Lab- intermediate and waste materials and for commercial-scale
oratory for Extractive Metallurgy.[19] testing of the treatment of hazardous wastes. The plant has
By 1987, there was external funding of nearly 1 million been modified and improved over the years and, in its present
dollars per year for the research work of the laboratory, which form, simulates closely the operability and controllability of
housed about 25 five staff and students carrying out research commercial plants.
into metal extraction equipment and processes. The University The wide range of uses for Ausmelt Technology devel-
laboratory had become a viable entity, and I returned full- oped in this plant is described in various articles.[20, 21, 22]
time to Ausmelt’s development. Dr. John Rankin took up the In the mid-1980s, Western Mining Corporation’s Kalgoorlie
leadership of the laboratory and achieved Co-operative Nickel Smelter was suffering problems due to a build-up of
Research Centre status with CSIRO as a partner. solid material in the bath of the flash furnace beneath the

566—VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005 METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B

flue offtake. All efforts to remove the build-up had failed, (4) Prefeasibility engineering and a costing study, includ-
and the blockage was soon to shut down the smelting oper- ing evaluations relating to environmental and commer-
ation. Ausmelt was given the job of supplying and installing cial suitability of the project.
a lance to be lowered through the roof to inject fuel and air (5) Larger-scale pilot-plant trials where required by a new
into the slag bath. The cascade of splashed slag produced process relating to scale-up, engineering limitations, or
by the lance rapidly dissolved the build-up and allowed the materials issues.
flash furnace to continue in operation for a number of years. (6) Feasibility study prior to a decision to invest in the com-
An Ausmelt plant for cupellation of 1,200 tpa retort bul- mercial plant.
lion at the BHAS lead smelter in Port Pirie was designed (7) Design, engineering, supply of special components (e.g.,
and installed in 1989. This plant was the major precious- lances), procurement, construction and start-up of the
metal recovery unit for the smelter until the late 1990s.[23] commercial plant.
Sulphide Corporation engaged Ausmelt to trial the fuming
of zinc from their imperial smelting furnace (ISF) slag, and a In forming Ausmelt in 1981, I had planned to establish
commercial-scale plant was built in 1988 to process 90,000 tpa our own industrial operations using the technology. In order
of liquid slag.[24] The project suffered from insufficient funds to give impetus to that development in 1987, Triako Resources
being allocated to provide reliable ancillary equipment. Although bought 20 pct of the company’s shares for 1 million Australian
it achieved good recovery and costs of processing, it suffered dollars. Verbal agreement on the deal had been reached the
from frequent stoppages and operations were not continued. day before a major stock market crash. Despite the consid-
Hollandse Metallurgische Industrie Billiton (HMIB) con- erable financial problems and uncertainty that the crash
tracted Ausmelt to develop, design, and commission a caused, Triako’s Barry Fairley went ahead with the agreement,
10,000 tpa tin concentrate smelter for their plant[25] in Arnhem, becoming a Director of Ausmelt and a great supporter of
The Netherlands (Figure 12). The smelter was started in 1989 the technology. Triako continues as a substantial shareholder
but closed in the early 1990s because of environmental prob- in Ausmelt today. A subsidiary company, Ausmelt Equity
lems with the secondary lead operations using rotary furnaces Ventures, was formed to pursue the development of this busi-
at the same site. ness area.
Throughout these developments, Ausmelt’s preferred path In 1989, CSIRO issued a license to develop and market
for process and plant supply for clients included the fol- TSL smelting technology to MIM, who had been carrying
lowing steps. out their own commercial developments in lead and copper
smelting. They had not been involved in marketing the tech-
(1) Theoretical evaluation of the technical feasibility and nology previously, and it came as a surprise that CSIRO
the optimum chemistry and process routes to be used. would undermine Ausmelt’s position in this way.
(2) Laboratory-scale studies of the technical feasibility and CSIRO subsequently gave Ausmelt what it said were
the optimum chemistry and process routes to be used. equivalent rights, but which were later found to favor MIM
(3) Pilot-scale trials of the technical feasibility of incorpo- for larger-scale plants. This new agreement, however, gave
rating submerged combustion with the proposed fuel Ausmelt the right to license the technology to end-users and,
and air/oxygen level. in that respect, was an improvement on the original agree-
ment of 1982.
I regret that CSIRO did not support Ausmelt’s technol-
ogy wholeheartedly during the crucial initial years of the
development of the markets and commercialization of the
technology. By competing with Ausmelt and being involved
in licensing, they confused the market. After more than eight
years of Ausmelt succeeding in a range of commercial plant
establishments and new process developments with clients
in Australia and overseas, CSIRO’s licensing MIM in com-
petition with Ausmelt did not make commercial sense. Now,
we had two Australian companies fighting head to head for
each client that wanted to use the technology for copper or
lead smelting.
If collaboration and assistance had been provided to
Ausmelt by CSIRO and if an effective working relationship
had been achieved with MIM, I think that the commercial-
ization would have been achieved more efficiently to the
benefit of CSIRO and MIM as well as Ausmelt. The licensees
of the technology would also have benefited from a clearer
path and more robust single source of the technology.
I want to emphasize that I do not feel any bitterness con-
cerning these events. I am pleased to hear that CSIRO is
now aware of the need to assist “spin-off” organizations.
CSIRO workers were under great pressure through the 1980s
to supplement their government funding with industrial
Fig. 12—HMIB commercial tin smelter. grants, and this undoubtedly contributed to the situation that

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005—567

 Table IV. Plant and Process Developments During the Ausmelt Development Phase

Small Large
Pilot Pilot
Patent Theoretical Lab Plant Plant Commercial
1. Plant Developments
1.1 Shrouded lance system 1 1 1 1 1
1.2 Jet pump powder injector 1 1 1
1.3 Continuous flow through reactor 1
1.4 Lances in flash furnaces 1
2. Process Developments
2.1 Smelting tin concentrates with Sb and Ta 1 1 1 1
2.2 Copper concentrate smelting (with uranium) 1 1 1 1
2.3 Copper matte converting 1 1
2.4 Nickel concentrate smelting 1 1 1
2.5 Nickel matte converting/desulfurizing 1 1 1
2.6 Laterite nickel smelting 1 1 1 1
2.7 Precious metal smelting 1 1 1 1
2.8 Cupellation of retort bullion 1 1 1 1
2.9 ISF slag fuming 1 1 1 1 1
2.10 Smelting complex copper-gold ore 1 1 1
2.11 Zinc concentrate smelting 1 1 1 1
2.12 Tin concentrate smelting 1 1 1
2.13 Antimony-gold smelting 1 1 1 1
2.14 Smelting complex ores, residues, and 1 1 1
concentrates
2.15 Recycling zinc leach residues 1 1 1 1
2.16 Smelting zinc silicate ore 1 1 1

Ausmelt had to work through. We all know that competition Table V. The Most Important Contributors to Ausmelt
is good in a free market and survival of the fittest is the way Technology and Corporate Growth in the 1980s
of the world. Ausmelt has not only survived, but has pros-
Ms. Carolyn Floyd Ausmelt Company Secretary & Director
pered and is diversifying into other areas of application of Mr. Ivan Storey Ausmelt Accountant and Financial Director
the technology. Mr. Brian Lightfoot First Employee, Manager, Managing
Table IV lists the plant and process developments achieved Director, and Director
in the Ausmelt development phase. Mr. Ross Muller Roxby Management Services Copper
Table V lists the people who contributed most significantly Smelter
in helping me to develop Ausmelt and the technology in the Mr. John Bultitude– Greenbushes Tin Smelter, then Ausmelt
1980s. Paull Operations Manager
Mr. John Leckie Australian Pacific Technology Venture
Capital
D. Ausmelt Commercialization Phase—1990 Onward Mr. Barry Fairley Triako Resources Investment and Director
The list of plants in operation and under design and con- Mr. Christian Dor HMIB Tin Smelter
struction (shown in Table I) is extensive, and these have
been the main visible achievements of the Ausmelt com-
mercialization phase of TSL Technology Development since
1990. pyro-refining. These plants allow recovery and production
In 1994, Ausmelt was floated successfully on the Aus- of metals from various residues and intermediates of the
tralian Stock Exchange and was referred to by some ana- Onsan plant. The final slag from the Ausmelt plants is
lysts as the star performer during its first year as a public saleable to cement producers.
company. There have been difficult years as well as star The Ausmelt copper smelters for Zhong Tiao Shan[28]
years for the company over the last 14 years. (Figure 16) and Tongling (Figure 17) in China, Birla Copper
Some of the highlights have resulted from the recognition in India, and the Star Project in Russia are substantial main-
of the breadth of operations which can benefit the environ- stream smelters.
mental and sustainability features as well as costs of operation The Zhong Tao Shan and Birla plants include Ausmelt
of the technology in the metal extraction industry. copper matte converting units, which provides an important
The Korea Zinc Company, a world-leading zinc producer, new market for the technology.
has built at the Onsan smelting complex five plants using The big lead smelter at Nordenham in Germany (Figure 18),
eight Ausmelt furnaces to process five different intermediate operated by Metaleurop, was installed to solve a pollution
materials: QSL lead smelter slag,[26] zinc leach residues[27] problem. Dust and fume escaped to the atmosphere during
(Figures 13 through 15), lead-rich residues and concentrates, processing of concentrates and secondary lead materials in
lead-zinc tailings from the processing of zinc concentrates the old sinter-plant/blast furnace. The original production tar-
by direct atmospheric leaching, and copper dross from lead get of 90,000 tpa lead produced from a mixture of concen-

568—VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005 METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B

 Fig. 15—Korea Zinc Co. Residue Fuming Plant feed. Little or no feed
preparation is needed for Ausmelt furnaces.

Fig. 13—Lance in Korea Zinc Co. Slag Fuming Plant furnace.

Fig. 16—Copper smelter and converter at Zhong Tiao Shan Copper (Houma
City, China).

Fig. 14—Korea Zinc Co. Residue Fuming Plant during construction.

trates and battery paste[29] is now being significantly exceeded.

The production costs and energy requirements are signifi- Fig. 17—Ausmelt copper smelter at Anhui Tongdu Copper (Tongling City,
cantly lowered compared with the old system, and the emis- China).
sions have been drastically decreased.
The Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) plant under design The Amplats furnaces in South Africa provide close met-
and construction in India will have both environmental and allurgical control of the product matte, needed for the sub-
cost benefits by use of Ausmelt lead smelting. sequent refining for platinum group metal (PGM) production.

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005—569

The technology replaces Pierce–Smith converters for tighter furnace to a smelting capacity of 70,000 tpa concentrates,
environmental performance. Similar benefits are provided producing more than 35,000 tpa of tin.
at a smaller scale by the Rio Tinto Zimbabwe plant at Eif- The tin smelter of Yunnan Tin Corporation in China
fel Flats,[30] which replaced an electric furnace. (Figure 20) was built with an installed capacity of 50,000 tpa
The tin smelter of Funsur in Peru[31] (Figure 19) origi- tin concentrates and, since its hot-commissioning start-up in
nally had an installed capacity of 25,000 tpa concentrates.
This has subsequently been increased by various means,
including oxygen enrichment and installation of a second

Fig. 19—View of the Funsur tin smelter and the control room during
operations.

Fig. 18—Lead smelter, Metaleurop (Nordenham, Germany) during con-

struction and on the operating floor during smelting of lead concentrates
and battery paste. Fig. 20—Tin smelter of Yunnan Tin Corporation (Gejiu City, China).

570—VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005 METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B

a record time of 3 weeks in mid-2003, has expanded capacity
to more than 60,000 tpa concentrates (30,000 tpa tin metal).
Between them, these two smelters produce over a quarter
of the world’s annual tin requirement.
Other plants built for processing of waste materials to
recover valuable components and produce a useable waste
product illustrate the capability of the technology in processing
hazardous or toxic waste materials. Note that the technology
applied to waste does not involve combustion reactions and,
therefore, cannot be considered as a high-temperature incin-
erator. The carbon or hydrocarbon components of waste fed
to the furnace reacts with ferric oxide dissolved in the slag
to produce carbon dioxide and water vapor and ferrous oxide
dissolved in the slag. Ferrous oxide in slag is then reoxidized
to ferric oxide by oxygen in the gases injected through the
lance. The reactions involve indirect oxidation, and the iron
oxide is effectively a catalyst. Ausmelt calls the reactor a
Catalytic Waste Converter. The Spent Potlining plant at
Portland[32] (Figure 21) is an example of this application, in Fig. 21—SPL Recycle Plant at Portland Aluminum/Alcoa (Australia).
which the recycled product is aluminum fluoride and the slag
is accepted by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)
(Victoria) as suitable for use in building materials.
Another waste application is the ISF Slag Fuming plant
at Hachinohe.[33] The plant recovers zinc and lead from the
slag for recycle to the ISF furnace, and the slag is used for
sea retaining walls.
The Mapo project under construction in Seoul is yet
another waste recycle application where the fly ash produced
in a municipal waste incinerator will be processed to recover
heavy metals such as zinc and lead and the slag waste will
be suitable for use in cement manufacture.
Note that the fuels for the various plants in Table I vary
depending on the requirements of the location. The Funsur
tin smelter is an example of the flexibility of the technology.
It started operations using light fuel oil, changed to heavy
fuel oil when that fuel became available at the location,
and is now being modified to operate on natural gas. The
similar tin smelter of Yunnan Tin Corporation uses coal as Fig. 22—Iron ore to pig iron demonstration plant (Whyalla, South Australia).
the fuel, because that is the most economical in Gejiu City.
Ironmaking using TSL technology has been under devel-
opment for some time. The first successful trials in the pilot
plant at Dandenong were carried out for processing Aneka slag cascade needed for the postcombustion energy recovery
Tambang’s Iron Sands from Java in the early 1990s.[34] Iron- and, with the high levels of oxygen enrichment of the com-
making has been further developed in a larger demonstration bustion air that is used, the lances are cooled by water.
plant of nominal annual capacity of 15,000 tpa iron in An R&D project was carried out with staff of University
Whyalla, South Australia,[35–38] as shown in Figure 22. The of Melbourne and Swinburne University of Technology to
technology is being evaluated for projects in Australia, India, evaluate flow in and above the bath in the multiple-lance
and China. Niche markets requiring 300,000 to 5000,000 tpa iron-smelting furnaces,[39,40,41] as shown in Figure 23.
of pig iron provide the present opportunities. An example Table VI lists the plant and process developments in the
is the production of pig iron for liquid feed to electric-arc Ausmelt commercialization phase.
steelmaking plants, where greater capacity, energy savings, Table VII lists the people who have contributed the most
and substitution of iron ore for scrap are of major benefit. to the Ausmelt commercialization phase of the technology
The Ironmaking technological development has drawn on since 1990.
the successful commercialization of TSL in the nonferrous
smelting market. Thus, many of the issues associated with V. PEOPLE AND FUNDING FOR TSL
scale-up have been addressed in the copper smelting plants DEVELOPMENTS BY CSIRO AND AUSMELT
with capacities of up to 500,000 tpa. The main differences
to nonferrous metal plants is that postcombustion energy Table VIII gives a summary of the maximum team size
recovery to the slag bath becomes a major (rather than a and the funds invested in the development of the technol-
minor) component of the energy balance, and the operating ogy by CISRO and Ausmelt.
temperatures are higher in the region of 1440 °C to 1480 °C. The quality of people and their technical and commercial
The furnace uses multiple lances to achieved the degree of competency is very significant in achieving a development

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005—571

 of worldwide significance and succeeding in commerciali-
zation of the technology in competition with world-leading
companies.
In both the CSIRO and Ausmelt teams, the selection,
training, and professional development of staff was of crit-
ical importance and has been generally successfully
achieved.
The cost of developing and commercializing any
technology needs to be considered carefully. There are
times and situations where costs must be minimized, but
(a)
if cost cutting is used inappropriately, the integrity and
effectiveness of the project can be jeopardized. For instance,
if a commercial plant is built with unsuitable components
of the feeding, gas-handling, product-handling, or other
“ancillary” components, the plant will not achieve its
capacity or product quality. The optimization of designing,
fabrication, procurement, engineering, and construction
of any plant requires engineers with high levels of skill
and judgment.
Initially, the TSL development was achieved by process
engineering specialists. For scale-up and commercialization
(b) of the technology, it became important to support process
engineering expertise with high-quality design and project
engineers covering the full range of engineering disciplines.
Marketing, sales, and commercial capabilities of the engi-
neering staff as well as the commercial and financial support
staff is a critical requirement of the commercial and tech-
nical success of the enterprise.
For a project involving construction of a TSL plant for a
client, the team required includes contractors, engineers,
consultants, and the staff of the company building the plant.
The success of the project obviously demands the profes-
(c) sional and efficient performance of all members of the team.
Fig. 23—Computational fluid-dynamics modeling of multiple-lance fur- The performance of a very large group of people must be
nace for ironmaking: (a) lance submergence of 14.3 pct, (b) lance sub- recognized in the successful commercialization of TSL
mergence of 28.6 pct, and (c) lance submergence of 42.9 pct. technology.

Table VI. Plant and Process Developments During the Ausmelt Commercialization Phase

Small Large
Pilot Pilot
Patent Theoretical Lab Plant Plant Commercial
1. Plant Developments
1.1 Multiple furnace systems 1
1.2 Multiple lance furnace 1 1 1 1
1.3 Water-cooled lances 1 1 1
1.4 Submerged combustion fired by:
1.4.1 Coal 1 1
1.4.2 Heavy oil 1 1
1.4.3 Natural gas 1 1
1.4.4 Autogeneous sulfide smelting 1
2. Process Developments
2.1 Iron making 1 1 1 1 1
2.2 Spent-pot lining recycle 1 1 1 1 1
2.3 Mobile phone battery recycle 1 1 1
2.4 Electronic waste recycle 1 1 1
2.5 Zinc leach residue recycle 1
2.6 Nickel-PGM matte converting 1 1
2.7 Continuous copper matte converting 1 1
2.8 Lead concentrate smelting 1 1
2.9 Lead secondaries smelting 1 1
2.10 Lead smelting slag reduction and fuming 1 1
2.11 Nickel leach residue smelting 1 1 1

572—VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005 METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B

 Table VII. Ausmelt Commercial Development—1990 own industrial production through Ausmelt Equity Ventures.
Onward Another is the Ausmelt Technology Corporation based in
Mr. Brian Lightfoot Ausmelt Technical Director and Manager
Denver, CO, aimed at developing and servicing the use of
of Ausmelt Equity Ventures the technology for waste processing in North America.
Mr. Peter King Ausmelt Marketing Director
Dr. Ken Robilliard Ausmelt Operations Manager, then
Manager of Funsur Tin Smelter VII. IMPORTANCE OF CONTINUING
Mr. Kevin Wong Ausmelt Engineering Manager BACKGROUND R&D
Mr. Paul Markham Rio Tinto Zimbabwe Smelter
Dr. C Y Choi Korea Zinc Co. Recycling plants at Onsan Ausmelt has been successful in improving the hardware
Mr. Barry Fairley Floating the company of TSL and in developing new applications. In my
Mr. Terry Silverson Chairman on Floating Ausmelt experience, commercial developments generally occur before
Mr. Ken Hamilton AusIron marketing and the South Australian R&D is carried out into the basic aspects of relevance to the
Steel and Energy (SASE) Project new processes and/or equipment involved. I think that back-
Mr. Ross Baldock Ausmelt Process Engineering Manager ground R&D is best carried out by research organizations
Mr. Gavin Swayn Ausmelt Process Engineer, then Portland
not directly involved in commercialization, because this
Aluminum Spent Pot Lining (SPL)
Plant Manager encourages a more abstract and independent approach to the
Dr. Harry Li Ausmelt Business Manager-China problem and brings in fresh minds with the potential for
Mr. Paul Abbott Ausmelt Managing Director cross fertilization.
Mr. Mark Thompson Ausmelt General Manager of Engineering In the case of Ausmelt Technology, two organizations
Dr. Joe Sofra Ausmelt Sales and Marketing Manager were able to provide R&D work in support of commercial-
ization. CSIRO was crucial to getting the technology to pro-
duction stage, but was of little benefit to Ausmelt over the
Table VIII. People and Funds for CSIRO and Ausmelt past 23 years because of the competition for development
Development Phases funds and because of the competitive position with MIM,
to whom they gave exclusive access to their research in the
No. of People TSL area during the 1990s.
in Team Total Funding A$ Universities were very helpful in supporting developments
(CSIRO & (Including by Ausmelt and in generating ideas for improvements. Excel-
Phase Ausmelt) Time Plant Cost) lent working relationships were maintained with Dr. Neil
Idea 1 6 months
20,000 Gray and his group at G.K. Williams Centre at University
CSIRO 1→4 10 years
5 million of Melbourne and with Professor Yos Morsi and his group
Development (CSIRO
1M) at Swinburne University of Technology.
Ausmelt 1 → 10 9 years
10 million Areas still needing investigation include the following:
Development (Ausmelt
3M)
Ausmelt Commer- 10 → 60 14 years
1 billion (1) flow patterns of liquids and gas in reactors and lances
cialization (Ausmelt
100M) during injection;
(2) feeding solid materials beneath the surface of a liquid
slag bath;
(3) measurements in furnace (temperature; oxygen potential;
VI. FAILURES slag, matte, and metal surface position; and composition
of liquid products from the furnace (instantaneous and
Ausmelt’s TSL technology has not achieved complete continuous); and
success with every initiative undertaken. Not all plants have (4) specific chemistry- and process-related issues for new
achieved continuing sustainable operation for clients. For- applications.
tunately, there are not many instances of failed projects.
Reasons for project failure are not always related to the
performance of the plant itself, but may relate to the overall VIII. THE FUTURE
economic environment at the time. The downward swing of
metal prices, a change in performance or ownership of mines The TSL technology is now a major component of the world-
producing raw materials, and alternative market arrangements wide production of nonferrous metals. The cost, environmental
for intermediates have all caused TSL projects to be dis- impact, controllability, and versatility of the technology will
continued. There have also been plants which have suffered continue to expand the number and capacity of production
technical difficulties because of problems with refractories, plants for smelting copper, tin, lead, nickel, precious metals,
ducting, oxygen or air supply, and other external facilities. and PGMs.
There have been a number of developments which have not The solution to the waste problems in the metallurgical
yet proceeded beyond pilot plant work into commercial oper- industry such as zinc leach residues, zinc-lead slags, and
ations, but the reasons generally have not been that the results alumina plant spent potlining are demonstrated by Ausmelt
were not as expected. Commercial operations are being exam- plants now in production, and, when environmental require-
ined or envisaged for processes under development. ments dictate, there will be opportunities for industry to
Two of the business initiatives of Ausmelt have not yet utilize these proven processes.
achieved sustainable operations, but they can still be suc- Environmental pressures to control dust and gas emissions
cessful in the future. One of these is establishing Ausmelt’s from smelters will increase with time, and, in order for the

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005—573

industry to be sustainable in proximity to towns or agricultural taken place during my professional life. Taking an idea to
production, those present smelting units which are intrinsically worldwide commercialization has involved me in many areas,
difficult to seal, such as Pierce–Smith converters, sinter plants, including technical, commercial, and corporate experimen-
and rotary furnaces, will need to be replaced. Coke ovens, tation and development. Personally, I have moved from the
needed to produce the bed of a blast furnace for ironmaking, role of postgraduate student to retired pyrometallurgist.
are another example of technology which causes significant Our ancient art continues to provide a challenging and
environmental problems. There are examples of Ausmelt rewarding career path for young people with a technical bent
plants in operation now which can efficiently and cost- who want to improve the commercial and community aspects
effectively solve these problems. Ausmelt copper matte and of industrial production.
nickel-PGM matte converting is now proven technology. The I see in my company and among the staff of clients and
lead-sinter plant/blast-furnace replacement at Nordenham associates, a large number of people who are both well
demonstrates substantial cost savings as well as greatly reduc- trained and highly motivated, with the technology, commu-
ing the environmental impact of lead smelting. nity, and family support structures needed to achieve great
The AusIron pig-iron technology can accept any form of advances. Application of the present technology and further
iron feed and most coal types as fuel and reductant and has innovation, development, and commercialization of new
been demonstrated to be cost- and energy-efficient for the ideas will continue the drive to provide sustainable, healthy,
production of iron. While there is a long way to go to replace and well-appreciated processing of materials.
blast furnaces producing many millions of tons per annum
of iron, there are smaller-scale niche markets, at present,
provided in the iron and steel industry. Ultimately, replace- REFERENCES
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Ausmelt’s can be expected. pp. 55-76.
There are also potential future metal markets for TSL based 2. T.R.A. Davey and J.M. Floyd: Proc. AusIMM, 1966, vol. 219, pp. 1-10.
3. D.H. Meadows, D.L. Meadows, J. Randers, and W.W. Behrens: The
on extensive work which has been done on projects which Limits to Growth, New york: University Books, 1972, p. 205.
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cling of secondary metals from residues and wastes containing 8. J.M. Floyd: U.S. Patent No. 3,905,807, 1977.
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The successful processing of hazardous wastes such as 10. J.M. Floyd and D.S. Conochie: Article to the Extractive Metallurgy
SPL and municipal waste incinerator ash demonstrates that Symp., Melbourne, 1974, p. 9.
11. J.M. Floyd and D.S. Conochie: Trans. IMM, 1979, vol. 88, pp. C114-C122.
the technology would be suitable to recycle hazardous indus- 12. J.M. Floyd, K.W. Jones, W.T. Denholm, R.N. Taylor, R.A. McClelland,
trial waste. The cost of recycling must be kept low, and the and J. O’Shea: Symp. on “Extractive Metallurgy,” The AusIMM
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North Queensland, 1978, Townsville, pp. 323-37.
Another way of enhancing the economics of waste recy- 14. A.K. Foo and J.M. Floyd: Lead-Zinc-Tin ‘80, AIME, Warrendale, PA,
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tion of tiles from Broken Hill Proprietory Company Limited “Extractive Metallurgy,” AusIMM Melbourne Branch, Melbourne,
(BHP) iron blast-furnace slags. This required a modification of 1984, pp. 9-15.
16. J.M. Floyd, N.C. Grave, and B.W. Lightfoot: Australia-Japan Extractive
the slag composition, which was very easily achieved in the Metallurgy Symp., AusIMM Sydney Branch, Sydney, 1980, pp. 63-74.
TSL system.[42] As a side issue, I demonstrated the ease and 17. J.M. Floyd and D.S. Conochie: Symp. on “Extractive Metallurgy,”
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Fall Extractive Meeting on Complex Sulfides; Processing of Ores, Con-
and was extremely tough. A building material produced in this centrates and By-Products, San Diego, CA, 1985, pp. 69-76.
way might have many valuable applications and could be sold 19. J.M. Floyd: 12th Australian Chemical Engineering Conf., Melbourne,
at a price much greater than slag used in cement, concrete, etc. I. Chem E, EA, RACI, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, 1984, pp. 87-94.
I think that TSL can also be developed to safely recycle 20. B.W. Lightfoot and J.M. Floyd: Smelting and Refining Operators Sym-
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Note that steam or power production are important valuable 22. J.M. Floyd: Mervyn Willis Symp. and Smelting and Refining Course,
products from many of the Ausmelt plants shown in Table I University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 1992, pp. 13:1-13:51.
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aspect of the operations. The system has been shown to be Symp., The AusIMM, Melbourne, Australia, 1989, pp. 255-61.
24. M. Waladan, G.R. Firkin, J.M. Bultitude-Paull, B.W. Lightfoot, and J.M.
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IX. CONCLUSIONS Process Metallurgy Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, 2000, pp. 331-43.
27. C.Y. Choi and Y.H. Lee: Global Symp. on Recycling, Waste Treatment
I am greatly honored that TMS has given me the oppor- and Clean Technology, I. Gaballah, J. Hages, and R. Solozabal, eds.,
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574—VOLUME 36B, OCTOBER 2005 METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B

28. E.N. Mounsey, H. Li, and J.W. Floyd: Copper 99—Cobre 99, TMS 35. N.F. Arthur, J.K. Hamilton, G.J. Haddow, and S.P. Kamath: Int. Conf.
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