Metals for Batteries Made Cleaner

October 16, 2005 – Vol.10 No.30

METALS FOR BATTERIES MADE CLEANER.

Hybrid cars need them. Proposed fuel cell cars will have them. They’re needed for storing intermittent renewable energy.

Batteries, a mandatory requirement in a growing array of consumer, industrial, even military devices, will become even more important in coming years.

Almost universally batteries need metals - zinc, nickel, lead, cadmium, lithium to name a few. (There are some organic batteries, but they haven’t moved beyond the laboratory work bench.)

While batteries supply clean, emission-free power, the mining and processing of metals can be a dirty business. (This is an understatement.)

Perhaps, however, the metals processing industry is on the verge of getting cleaner.

Inco Ltd (once the International Nickel Company) is in the third phase toward full commercialization of hydrometallurgical processing for treating nickel concentrates. Inco claims the hydromet process, compared with conventional smelting and refining, eliminates sulfur dioxide and dust, is more energy efficient and is more economical in terms of both capital and operating expenses.

The hydromet process, a leaching process to separate metal ores, is more than 100 years old, as is the history of Inco.

Inco began with bench-scale laboratory testing of the hydromet process then moved up to a 1/10,000 scale mini-pilot plant that was completed in June of 2005. Now Inco has announced the startup of a 1/00 scale demonstration plant at its nickel concentrate operations in Voisey’s Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland. The next and final step will be full scale commercialization. No date has been given for that stage.

Technology Partnerships Canada provided CAD 60 million ($51 million) towards the CAD 175 million ($150 million) hydromet research and development project. Visit Inco at http://www.inco.com/ , the Voisey’s Bay project at http://www.inco.com/about/development/voisey/ and Voisey’s Bay Nickel Company (a division of Inco) at http://www.vbnc.com/ .