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Falcondo (Falconbridge Dominicana, C. por A.) is a surface mining operation that has the capacity to produce 28,000 tonnes of nickel contained in ferronickel annually. Ferronickel is a combination of iron and nickel used almost exclusively by the stainless steel industry.
The property is situated in the Dominican Republic, in the town of Bonao, 80 kilometres north of Santo Domingo. The facilities include a metallurgical treatment plant, a crude oil refinery and a 200 megawatt thermal power plant.
Falconbridge owns 85.26% of the outstanding shares of Falcondo.
Location Map
Geology
The Falcondo nickel-laterite deposits are situated on the summits of a series of hills and ridges along a belt of alpine-type serpentinized peridotites.
Detailed Geology
Operations
There are seven mining areas that supply feed to the ore preparation plant and smelting facilities – Larga, Caribe, Ortega, Fraser, Peguera, Taina and Guardarraya.
In Falcondo's initial mining phase, the overburden is carefully removed to expose the ore. Hydraulic backhoes or shovels remove the ore, which averages 7 metres in thickness. The mined-out areas are contoured and reforested with fast-growing species.
The ore is then transported to the ore prep plant by truck for metallurgical processing. The first stage of this process, called "reduction," involves the high-temperature conversion of nickel and iron oxides to a metallic state in the shaft furnaces. The ore is compressed into individual pillow-shaped briquettes and then smelted in the electric furnaces. After refining, the metal is cast into ferrocones, which contain roughly 40% nickel and 60% iron. The ferrocones are trucked to the Port of Haina near Santo Domingo where they are shipped to market.
Falcondo has a 200 megawatt power plant on the site, which supplies the metallurgical complex with all the power it needs. Crude oil is piped 80 kilometres from Santo Domingo to the topping plant in Bonao, which converts the oil into naphtha for the reduction furnaces, diesel for mobile equipment and fuel oil for the power plant. In addition to supplying Falcondo with power, the plant also produces excess power that is sold to the Dominican Republic and diverted to the national grid.
2004 Production Rates
29,477 tonnes of nickel in ferronickel
Flowsheets
Falcondo Metallurgical
Reserves
- Proven: 47.85 million tonnes grading 1.21% nickel
- Probable: 9.56 million tonnes grading 1.20% nickel
More information
Resources
- Indicated: 13.84 million tonnes grading 1.53% nickel
- Inferred: 6.40 million tonnes grading 1.40% nickel
More information
Employees
The Falcondo facility employs approximately 1,500 people.
History
Falcondo started up in 1971. In July 1999, it became the first ferronickel facility in the world to be ISO 14001 certified.
In 1989, the company established Fundación Falconbridge, Inc. (the Falconbridge Foundation), a non-profit institution designed to encourage development in the areas of health, education, environment and culture. The Foundation also enables area residents to plan and carry out development activities by supporting projects related to the preservation and management of natural resources. Over the past 16 years, the Foundation has donated approximately US$10 million and has reforested over 500 hectares of land in the country. In 2005, Falcondo received an honorific mention from the Organization of States of America, as one of the "corporate citizen of Americas" for the work done in the Dominican Republic in favour of local communities. |
