London-Bateman Engineering reports the signing of a contract with Dynatec Madagascar SA (DMSA), valued at approximately US$100m, for the provision of sulfuric acid facilities for its Ambatovy Nickel project in Madagascar. The engineering and procurement project is to commence immediately, with mechanical completion of the first of the two sulfuric acid plants scheduled for September 2009; the first plant will be commissioned immediately thereafter, and the second one will follow approximately three months later. The contract covers the design, engineering, and procurement of a single sulfur melting and filtration circuit with two separate standalone 2,750 mt/d sulfuric acid plants, thus providing 5,500 mt/d of acid production capacity. The process engineering will be undertaken in collaboration with Canadian technology company Noram Engineering and Constructors Ltd. (Noram), who are the holders of the underlying process technology, and with whom Bateman Engineering has entered into a long-term technology license agreement. “This contract is the first ‘greenfield’ sulfuric acid plant to be built by Bateman Engineering in the recent past and therefore marks an important re-entry into this significant utility market together with our technology partners, Noram,” said Dr. Sivi Gounden, Bateman CEO. “We see this as a key opportunity to build a state-of-the-art reference plant.” DMSA is a Madagascan company, 40 percent owned by Sherritt International (who recently acquired Dynatec Corp.), 27.5 percent by Sumitomo Corp., 27.5 percent by KORES (Korean Resources Corporation), and 5 percent by SNC Lavalin.
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