Phoenix-Freeport-McMoRan will resume construction of a modern sulfur burning plant at its Safford operations to produce sulfuric acid for copper recovery, according to Freeport officials, who say environmental permits are in place for the facility to be built at an estimated cost of approximately $150 million. Freeport spokesman Richard Peterson said work, which was deferred in December 2008 because of economic conditions, will resume in the second quarter and will take approximately one year to complete. Peterson said the plant is to be highly automated, with state-of-the-art environmental controls and a standard proven facility design; because of this, it will have a minimal impact on employment at the Safford operations. There will, however, be about 250 construction employees on the project at its peak. He said the plant, with a capacity of approximately 465,000 short tons of sulfuric acid per year, is designed for the needs of copper processing and there will be no surplus acid available for other purposes. The plant will burn elemental sulfur that will be brought by railcar to a transfer facility to be built southeast of Fort Thomas. Sulfur will be transferred from the railcars to trucks for transportation to the sulfur burning plant. Waste heat from the sulfur burner will be used to produce approximately 15 megawatts of electric power, ten megawatts more than required to operate the acid plant itself, with the balance used to support some of the demand from the other Safford operations.
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