Study on fluorspar is promising - Necsa
February 1, 2006
By Ingrid Salgado
Cape Town - The SA Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), which develops and sells fluorochemical technologies, said yesterday that a feasibility study on further opportunities in South Africa for beneficiating fluorspar "looks promising".
The study, due to be completed by mid-year, is investigating opportunities to strengthen the fluorine-based chemical value chain, such as the production of aluminium trifluoride, which is used in the region's aluminium smelters but is currently imported.
Theo Scholtz, Necsa's business development manager, said several further opportunities had been identified "but we are not ready to disclose them at this point".
However, he indicated that should South Africa embark on uranium beneficiation in future, production of hydrogen fluoride and fluorine would be "essential".
Fluorochemicals are used in the conversion process for enriching uranium, which is used in nuclear reactors to, for example, generate electricity. Scholtz noted that the world market for uranium had "picked up dramatically" as the price rose from $15 (R92) a pound in 2003 to about $37 currently.
Among other things, the study is determining the feasibility of a R300 million hydrogen fluoride and aluminium trifluoride plant whose shareholders would comprise the government and a consortium of private investors, including black economic empowerment and international participants.
Scholtz said the potential value to South Africa of the industry amounted to between R3 billion and R5 billion. However, should the department of trade and industry successfully establish further downstream opportunities, the figure "could be tens of billions of rands".
A hydrogen fluoride plant larger than Necsa's current facilities would have improved economies of scale and be used to attract international partners to locate downstream facilities around the plant, Scholtz said.
The new hydrogen fluoride plant would not be constructed on the Necsa site, he said. Hydrogen fluoride is a dangerous chemical that is not usually traded across oceans.
"The source of hydrogen fluoride production therefore usually leads to downstream beneficiation in the local area," said Scholtz.
Necsa, through its fluorochemical technology division, Peldev, and its fluorochemical manufacturing and sales unit, Pelchem, produces a range of fluorine-based products for application in the detergent, metallurgical, mining, petrochemical, polymer, semiconductor and water treatment markets.
Even though South Africa abandoned its nuclear programme in the early 1990s, production of hydrogen fluoride continues to be located within Necsa due to technical expertise.
The basic building block for fluorine chemistry is hydrogen fluoride, which is also used to brighten stainless steel, as a catalyst in petrol production and as a raw material to manufacture refrigerant gases.
The key raw material for hydrogen fluoride is fluorspar. South Africa is the world's third-largest producer of fluorspar at 260 000 tons a year and has the second largest reserves in the world of about 80 million tons.
A sector development strategy on chemicals released by the department of trade and industry last year identified the beneficiation of fluorspar as a "key action programme" as more than 95 percent of the mineral is exported.
Necsa said it was not prepared to disclose the identity of its supplier, but South Africa's fluorspar miners include Sallies and Metorex.
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