Lead Mining
Lead and zinc ores often occur together. In fact, lead was the first metal mined in Australia in the 1840s. Most of lead mining is achieved by using highly mechanized underground methods, although some deposits are mined from open pits. Fraser-Lever is an innovator in lead processing plant design and is actively working on Australian and PNG mining sites to introduce tailored solutions that deliver unmatched high productivity and cost-efficiencies.
Lead Processing Plant Design
Fraser-Lever has a multidisciplinary team that specialises in process plant design and optimisation to ensure the commissioning of safe and constructible designs to drive productivity and performance for our clients.
Our work includes minerals processing and plant design work for greenfield and brownfield sites. We work to determine the optimal arrangement between plant and infrastructure to achieve maximum efficiency and performance.
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Fraser-Lever has extensive experience throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea in lead and other base metals plant design.
Case Study – BHP Cannington Growth Project
Cannington, in North West Queensland, is the largest silver mine in the world but also produces lead and zinc concentrates. In fact, the Cannington operation in Australia has grown to become the world’s largest and lowest cost producer of lead. It produces 7% of the world’s lead, with the heavy metal mainly used in batteries for the automotive industry and is an essential source of power for electric vehicles.
It’s essential that the plant seamlessly and reliably sends its product from mine to market, having built a processing plant, a road-to-rail transfer facility as well as a ship loader at the Port of Townsville.
Fraser-Lever staff undertook the detailed electrical and instrumentation engineering design to expand the plant nameplate capacity from 1.8 Mtpa to 2.7Mtpa. Tie-ins to the existing plant were undertaken during scheduled plant shutdowns to minimise disruption to production.
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