Case studies

KONKOLA COPPER MINE, ZAMBIA

Konkola Copper trusts PROXA with their water treatment for smelter use.

THE CHALLENGE

Konkola Copper Mines needed to treat a raw water supply from the Zambian Kafue River to meet four different grades of water for use at the smelter. PROXA’s responsibility included the pumping, control and supply of the raw water at a rate of 1500 kl/hr.

OUR SOLUTION

We commissioned the plant to produce: process water, cooling tower feed water, boiler feed water and potable water, through a series of unit operations. These unit steps included clarification, media filtration, reverse osmosis and ion exchange. We also optimised the plant to cater for fluctuations in feed water composition related to seasonal changes.

HOW PROXA ADDED VALUE

Given PROXA’s experience in operating in challenging conditions with limited resources, we were able to increase the plant availability and decrease the operating costs – associated with chemicals and consumables – by more than 30%.

FEED WATER

Fluctuating raw river water supply.

PRODUCT WATER

Four different grades of process water:

Demineralised water for the boiler feed
RO water for the oxygen plant
RO permeate for the smelter
Filtered water for the cooling systems

PERFORMANCE TARGET

Flow rate 1500 kl/hr.

PROCESS RELIABILITY

PROXA’s responsibilities extended to 24/7 operation and maintenance, which was supported via our proprietary Q-TRAK® remote monitoring system and technical teams.

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

As part of PROXA’s commitment to the upliftment of local communities, we employed over 16 local nationals in Zambia. They entered an intense training programme within PROXA for skills development as process controllers and plant operators.

A number of these junior operators have continued their career growth within the company and have been promoted to site supervisors and plant managers tasked with the responsibility of running their own sites.