Expertise
Goro - New Caledonia
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.