Tests inconclusive at Trail smelter

Revisions to the problem-plagued QSL lead smelter at Trail, B.C., will remain on hold while test work continues aimed at resolving major process and mechanical difficulties which forced a shutdown of the new plant in March, 1990.

“Until the problems are solved, the QSL process cannot meet the continuous operational and production requirements of Trail,” stated Ted Fletcher, senior vice-president of Cominco Metals.

Parent company Cominco (TSE) said test results carried out in June by Lurgi, the process supplier of the QSL smelter, at Metallgesellschaft’s Stolberg plant reconfirmed that natural gas can be used as a reluctant. But the company also said other factors affecting plant operating availability and throughput were “not conclusive” with respect to Trail.

Further modifications are scheduled for this fall at the Stolberg plant in Germany. In the meantime, however, Cominco is continuing to assess alternative technologies, namely the Kivcet process which had been considered before the decision was made to go with the QSL process.

Cominco will deliver 200 tons of residues from Trail to the Kivcet pilot plant in the Soviet Union for process testing to be conducted later this year. Construction of the lead smelter was completed in the fall of 1989, with startup beginning in December. During the next three months mechanical and operating problems were identified and the plant was subsequently shut down. The old lead smelter was restarted in 1990, and is now operating at a rate of 110,000 tons per year.