TASNEE announce start of trial operation of Ilmenite Smelter Project

The National Industrialization Company (TASNEE) announced on Sunday the start of the trial operation of the Ilmenite Smelter Project for the production of high-grade titanium feedstock plant.

This comes with reference to the announcement published on Tadawul on September 16, 2021 relating to the Ilmenite Smelter Project for the production of high-grade titanium feedstock (the ‘Plant’).

TASNEE announced that after the implementation of all required modifications by Metso Outotec and the relevant contractors, the mechanical completion was achieved on October 30th 2021 followed by start-up preparations and heat-up of the furnace, The start of the plant for the trial operation commenced and produced (Titanium Slag) as well as first batch of (Pig Iron) on December 5th 2021.”

The furnace load will ramp-up from the current 18MW, to 30 MW by mid-January 2022. This is the first holding point which is planned to last 90 days, with the aim to optimize the operating parameters of the furnace.

The success of the operation run at the first holding point then will be followed by ramping the load up gradually to around 45MW (70% of design capacity) by end of Q2 2022, the target load for the execution of sustainable operation test. It is targeted to achieve this milestone in Q4 2022. Only thereafter will the furnace load be increased to design capacity of 60 MW.

The slagger plant in Jazan is the first smelting plant being built with this large capacity using brush arc AC technology for Ilmenite smelting from Metso Outotec, thus demonstration of technology and overcoming operational and technical challenges is required to declare the success of the project. I

The gradual increase of load is a common practice for similar metal smelting industries in order to ensure the furnace integrity at the different levels of power loads and production rates.