The Phase 2 demonstration ended officially on the 31st of March 2023. During the first 6 months of 2023 Elemetal continued operating the demonstration plant. The leaching and purification section of the demonstration plant continued to ramp-up and have achieved a steady operation. Regarding the crystallization and drying also significant progress have been made. Especially the drying section encountered several challenges that needed modifications on the process.
The flow sheet of the drying section after the crystallization was modified and adjustments to machinery were applied. The crystallization and drying section are currently producing zinc sulphate monohydrate crystals. This section is still behind compared to the leaching and purification section in terms of maturity. For 2023 this section will need further debottlenecking and optimizations.
For 2023 and 2024 the demonstration plant will continue to operate. Parallel to this operation replication efforts should increase to accelerate the replication activities.