Forty percent of the world’s untapped mineral reserves are located in Africa. China-driven demand for metals has spurred tremendous growth in the region in the past 10 years. This trend is demonstrated in the central African copper belt straddling the boarders of Zambia and DRC. This region’s double digit growth rates in copper production have been compounding since 2000 and are expected to continue through at least 2015. By 2015 DRC and Zambia will be the 3rd and 4th largest copper producing nations behind Chile and Peru.

Kemira’s Superfloc brand of dry flocculants, has found application in copper mining for many years.  Thanks to their effective application, Kemira is now the leading flocculant supplier to key processes for the African copper producers.  Superfloc nonionic flocculants are the established best-in-class product in the extraction of copper from low-grade copper leach solutions with proven compatibility in solvent-extraction circuits. The higher molecular weight anionic products are ideal for high rate and ultra-high rate thickeners.

Committed to customer success

Kemira is committed to delivering a continuous supply of high-quality products safely and applying them with maximum efficiency. Demonstrating this commitment has positioned Kemira as a key partner in the aggressive expansion plans for many of the copper mines in the region. Consultation on thickener feedwell design and flocculant application points have enabled one producer in Zambia to almost double feed-rate with minimal capital expenditure using the existing thickeners. To further enhance logistics, local warehousing has also been established to assure continuous supply. 

Additional product lines have been added to the portfolio providing benefits to other parts of the process.  In copper refining, the nonionic Superfloc products are widely used as smoothing aids to improve cathode quality. New products are also being developed to tackle issues such as scale control, concentrate settling and filtration problems.