Nickel is a corrosion-resistant metal used in many industrial and consumer products, including stainless steel. The Cosmic Boy nickel concentrate plant in Western Australia will be a vital asset for Western Areas, which is aiming to become a major nickel producer. VACON AC drives control a wide variety of pumps at the concentrator plant, for process flow and pressure control.

1. Reference Story
nickel concentrate
at cosmic boy in australia
Unusual nickel deposits at Forrestania
Nickel is a corrosion-resistant metal used in many industrial nickel ore production from Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll, the
and consumer products, including stainless steel. The Cos- first mines in operation at Forrestania.
mic Boy nickel concentrate plant in Western Australia will be
a vital asset for Western Areas, which is aiming to become a The central concentrator plant provides several benefits. It
major nickel producer. Vacon AC drives control a wide vari- gives Forrestania the possibility to manage the concentrate
ety of pumps at the concentrator plant, for process flow and process, to improve metallurgical recoveries and to blend
pressure control. high and low grade ores from a number of deposits. It also
reduces ore transports and increases profitability.
Forrestania Nickel Project, 600 km east of Perth in Western
Australia, contains substantial exploration potential with Nickel sulphide flotation process plant
more than 25 nickel occurrences identified already. Even the
Western Areas appointed a Perth based engineering services
most experienced analysts and geologists admit that they
team for the engineering, design, procurement, construction
have not seen anything to compare with these high quality and
and commissioning of the Cosmic Boy nickel concentrate. The
unusual nickel deposits. Forrestania Nickel Project is owned
plant was designed for a process throughput of 250,000 tpa,
100 % by Western Areas, an Australian-based nickel sulphide
at a milling nominal treatment rate of 30 tph, with provision
explorer and producer with advanced projects also in Canada
for an expansion in processing capacity to a throughput of
and Finland. The company plans to develop fi ve mines at the
550,000 tpa.
Forrestania site by 2011, for a targeted production of some
35,000 tonnes of nickel a year.
Processing includes primary crushing, conveying, coarse ore
storage and milling incorporating fl ash flotation to produce a
To establish Forrestania as a major nickel province produc-
nickel concentrate. Concentrate is dewatered via thickening
ing ore from a number of sources, it was essential to build a
and filtration to produce a concentrate suitable for dispatch
central concentrate plant at Cosmic Boy, centrally located in
via trucking and shipping. Process plant tails are thickened
the Forrestania site. The 250,000 tonne per annum plant was
prior to being pumped to the tailings storage facility.
officially opened by the Western Australian Minister for Mines
and Petroleum on 24 March 2009, and since then the plant has
The stage 2 upgrade, to be fully operational in June 2010,
been upgraded to 550,000 tonne per annum. The plant takes
included the crushing circuit upgrade, the conversion of the

2. SAG mill to a ball mill and installation of additional flotation
and thickener capacity.
Vacon AC drives to improve process control
The engineering services team focuses on providing integrat-
ed, efficient and practical designs to achieve high quality, cost
effective solutions, whilst maintaining a high level of safety
and operational performance to successfully deliver proj-
ects. To achieve these goals, the engineering services team
needed AC drives for their project.
Vacon has supplied to this project a total of 44 Vacon NXS
range of variable speed AC drives in the power range from
0.25 kW to 160 kW. The Vacon variable speed AC drives con-
trol various pumps at the Cosmic Boy concentrator plant.
Pump control with the help of a variable speed AC drive brings
considerable energy savings. It also improves process con-
trol, which is essential in the concentrating process to ensure
consistent quality for the process ore.
Cosmic Boy nickel concentrator is an essential part of
“Vacon AC variable speed drives were selected to provide re- Forrestania Nickel Project using conventional flotation
liability with local service support for the remote location of technology to process ore into nickel concentrate with an
the mine site,” says Geoff Foster, Corporate Segment Direc- average grade of 14 % nickel. The stage 2 upgrade at the
tor, Mining Minerals & Cement, Vacon. Cosmic Boy nickel concentrate is expected to double the
capacity of the plant by June 2010. It will process the in-
creased production from the Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll
mines.
The primary discovery at Forrestania, Flying Fox, is one
of the highest grade nickel deposits in the world and has
now been in production for two years. Western Areas is
targeting combined annual production from the Flying
Fox and Spotted Quoll mines of 25,000t nickel by 2011.
Nickel, in its pure form, is a silvery-white lustrous metal
with a slight golden tinge. It is a corrosion-resistant metal
used in many industrial and consumer products. Accord-
ing to some estimates, demand for nickel will continue to
exceed supply over the coming years.
Vacon AC drives control a wide variety of pumps at the
concentrator plant, for process flow and pressure con-
trol.
Vacon Pacific
5/66-74 Micro Circuit
Dandenong South
Victoria 3175, Australia
Tel. +61 (0)3 9238 9300
RS000129A
Fax. +61 (0)3 9238 9310
E-mail sales.australia@vacon.com
www.vacon.com.au