Ambatovy - Madagascar

SNC-Lavalin has been involved with the Ambatovy Project in Madagascar since the study phase in 2004 which was followed by a basic engineering phase then the project execution phase through an EPCM contract.

The project is located 130 km east of the capital Antananarivo and will be mined over 27 years producing 60,000 t of nickel and 5,600t of cobalt annually. The process plant consists of a pressure acid leach plant, a refinery, and associated auxiliary and utility plants. These include a coal fired power plant producing steam for turbines and process, water treatment plants, hydrogen plant, hydrogen sulphide plant, sulphuric acid plant, air separation plant, limestone calcining and slaking plants, and ammonium sulphate plant.

In addition to the plant, infrastructure was provided to support the development including buildings, reagents storage, laboratory, accommodation, rail spur, and port upgrade.
 

Barro Alto - Brazil

SNC-Lavalin with Minerconsult (now part of SNC-Lavalin) were awarded the definitive feasibility study for this project in 2005, and this was followed by project delivery through an EPCM contract with completion in 2011. The project was deferred during execution by 12 months due to the GFC, and SNC-Lavalin managed the deferment program for the Client, Anglo American, during this period.

The project capacity is 34,000 tpa Nickel produced by two identical RK-EF pyrometallurgical process streams each treating 1.28 Mtpa of ore. The process involves crushing, drying, calcining, smelting, refining, and granulation.

The process plant was supported by infrastructure including water supply, cooling water dam, civils, potable water treatment, site buildings, and slag dump.
 

 Goro - New Caledonia

SNC-Lavalin in joint venture was awarded a contract in 2005 to provide EPCM services to this project intended to produce 60,000 tpa copper and 5,000 tpa cobalt.

The Goro project is one of the largest nickel developments ever constructed and uses a state of the art high pressure acid leaching process (HPAL) to produce nickel oxide and cobalt carbonate. This process dissolves minerals from the ore slurry in sulphuric acid. Unwanted minerals are progressively removed in the refinery and the solvent extraction plants. Finally the pyrohydrolysis plant converts the nickel chloride produced in the SX plant into nickel oxide before cooling and packaging for export.

Appurtenant infrastructure included a port to handle imports of coal, limestone and sulphur and the export of products. Water supply, energy generation via an oil fired power station, and buildings, accommodation, and other site general infrastructure were all supplied as part of the project.

Modularisation was used extensively and there were over 350 modules totalling in excess of 14,600 t with the largest modules being around 560 t each.
 

SNC-Lavalin were requested to provide Murrin Murrin Operations with a number of Definitive Feasibility Studies related to their sustaining capital and plant enhancement projects.

These studies covered a range of areas such as safety, utilities, piping, electrical, water supply, general equipment and infrastructure.

In addition work was done in some of the process areas such as the Sulphide Precipitation area and the Hydrogen Sulphide area and some areas of the refinery.