Latrobe Magnesium Limited announced the signing of a binding MoU with Société Le Nickel (SLN), for the supply of 450,000 tonnes per annum of ferro-nickel slag for 20 years for its 100,000tpa magnesium plant as its feedstock. LMG will need in the order 600,000tpa of ferro nickel per annum to produce 100,000tpa of magnesium. SLN with its present port facilities can handle the loading of 450,000 tpa and it is considering expanding these facilities for its own reasons.

As and when the proposed expansion is undertaken, SLN has advised LMG that they will be able to cater for an additional 150,000 tpa of ferro-nickel slag. In the event SLN do not expand its port facilities, LMG will source additional supply from another ferro-nickel producer. There are some 20 plus ferro-nickel slag producers in the areas of Indonesia or Philippines.

The chemistry of the SLN ferro-nickel slag is 33%MgO, 55%SiO and 9%Fe2O3. LMG has been able to make magnesium, high grade amorphous silica, hematite and its supplementary cementitious material from this feedstock. The feedstock has nearly twice the Magnesium Oxide (MgO) content as Yallourn brown coal fly ash.

This means that LMG can process less material to achieve the same amount of magnesium when compared to fly ash. It takes 10 tonnes of fly ash, dolomite or magnesite to make 1 tonne of magnesium. It only takes 6 tonnes of ferro-nickel slag to make 1 tonne of magnesium.

SLN's facility is one of the ferro nickel production plants in the world and makes 1.7m tonnes of ferro nickel slag per annum and have a slag heap of some 28m tonnes on the island of New Caledonia. New Caledonia contains approximately 20% of the worlds nickel ore reserves, facilitating Ferronickel (and Ferronickel slag) production for decades to come.