Industry intelligence
Mintek signs MoU with Nigeria
NEWMONT BLOWS HOT AND COLD…
Newmont Mining has appointed South African-based
TLT ACTOM to implement a turnkey ventilation
solution at the company’s Subika gold mine in Ghana.
The ventilation solution for the mine comprises
both large surface fans and bulkhead cooler fans to
ensure efficient ventilation of the main shaft.
In addition, TLT ACTOM will supply two axial main
surface fans, each spanning 2.5m in diameter and
3.5m in height, along with two bulkhead cooler
fans. The fan design is based on parent-company
TLT Turbo’s technology, while the manufacturing
is managed from TLT ACTOM’s headquarters in
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Full installation of the fans will take place
early in 2018.
South Africa’s national mineral research organisation Mintek
has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with
Nigeria’s Raw Materials Research and Development Council
(RMRDC) to collaborate in technical research in mineral
processing and beneficiation to boost capacity in Nigeria and
South Africa.
The MoU commits the two institutions to identify areas
of research, collaborate in projects through knowledge
sharing and expertise in mineral processing for the
continuance of their respective activities and capacity
building in the mineral sector.
The collaboration forms part of a MoU signed in 2013
by the South African government and the Nigerian
government, which outlines a partnership between South
Africa and Nigeria in the field of mining, geology, metallurgy
and minerals processing.
Commercialisation of thorium imminent
With only a few months remaining out of a
five-year qualification programme by Thor
Energy in Norway, the commercialisation
of thorium as a supplement fuel in
conventional nuclear reactors is imminent.
Initiated by the Thorium Irradiation
Consortium, it is led by Thor Energy and
has the Institute for Ene rgy Technology
(IFE) in Norway; Westinghouse; Fortum
in Finland; the UK’s National Nuclear
Laboratory; the German Institute for
Transuranic Elements (ITU); and the
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
(KAERI) as consortium partners.
Three countries, China, India and Turkey,
have so far declared thorium as part of their
national power policy and the OECD-
NEA recently published a paper concluding
that the implementation of thorium as a
nuclear fuel is sensible, safe and reasonable
in the long run, and that this evolution
starts with combined uranium and thorium
cycles in the near term.
The US, France, Japan, China and South
Korea have the most uranium-based nuclear
reactors and are all potential clients for the
thorium / uranium pellet fuel. South Korea
has 24 uranium-based nuclear reactors,
each the size of Koeberg, which represents
enormous potential for the new thorium-
containing pellet fuels.
Thorium fuel can use either uranium or
plutonium as the fissile driver material. The
waste produced by the thorium fuel cycle is
safer than the waste produced by uranium
fuel that is currently used in existing nuclear
reactors. Thorium is environmentally safer
and extremely difficult to use to make a
nuclear weapon.
The thorium fuel cycle is cleaner than that
of uranium. In contrast, uranium produces
plutonium and minor actinides in its waste
and plutonium can be used to manufacture
a nuclear weapon. These minor actinides
remain radioactive for thousands of years,
but the thorium fuel cycle produces no
plutonium and hardly any minor actinides.
In contrast, the waste from the thorium
fuel cycle contains mainly fission products
that lose most of their radioactivity in a
short time period. As a result, the thorium
fuel cycle substantially reduces the problems
associated with the management and
storage of nuclear waste.
The first thorium fuel specimens were
loaded into the Norwegian fuel-testing
reactor operated by the Institute for Energy
Technology in Halden in April 2013, and
the second round loaded before Christmas
2015 and was intended to verify test results.
“With this second rig loaded, we have
reached a major milestone and an important
stepping stone towards commercial
approval for thorium in existing light water
reactors (LWRs),” says Oystein Asphjell,
CEO of Thor Energy.
“This rig represents a further step in the
thorium evolution which will contribute
towards the long-term sustainability of
nuclear power in general and specifically for
thorium as an additive and improvement to
the uranium fuel cycle,” adds Asphjell.
This second phase of the thorium
irradiation consists of 12 fuel pins in a new,
fully-instrumented test fuel rig. It consists
of three variants of ThAdd fuel, which are
uranium-based pins with small fractions
of thorium, four reference pins as well as
two pins with Accident Tolerant Fuel from
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
(KAERI).
“The irradiation will produce a great
deal of unique data from a number
of parameters that describes how the
fuel ceramic behaves as it operates for
long periods in a reactor core in various
conditions.
“The Halden test reactor allows for
continuous data collection while the
fuel operates in the reactor. The data
acquired is necessary to confirm that the
fuel could be implemented safely and
productively in a commercial reactor and
will support computer modelling efforts
and the planning for follow-on testing in a
commercial power reactor,” he says.
“Thorium oxide-based fuels can
provide advantages such as higher thermal
conductivity and a higher melting point –
properties that have safety margin benefits.
Thorium fuels also generate no new
plutonium,” says Trevor Blench, chairman
of the Steenkampskraal Holdings, owners
of the mine in Western Cape which plans
to supply thorium to the nuclear fuel
industry.
The Steenkampskraal thorium and
rare earth mine hopes to begin mining in
about 18 months. The mine has the world’s
highest-grade rare earth and thorium
deposit with average grades of 14.4% rare
earths and 2.14% thorium.
“We see significant potential for thorium
as a safe supplement to uranium as a
nuclear fuel. The increasing demand for rare
earths indicates that there is an immediate
demand for the mine’s production,” he adds.
JANUARY 2018 MINING MIRROR
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