12th biannual BIOX® Users Conference in Philippines

The main objective of the conference was to provide delegates from the various operations with the opportunity to share their experiences, problems, successes, innovations, and inventions.

Highlights included presentations by current BIOX operators detailing the advances they have made in the operation of their plants. There were also presentations about potential BIOX projects, highlighting the exciting future of this technology.

Outotec also gave feedback on the research and development work being conducted, both in-house and through various sponsored masters and doctorial study programs. An excellent presentation was given by Prof. Sue Harrison from the Centre for Bioprocess Engineering at the University of Cape Town: “BIOX Culture Dynamics, Physiological Potential and Factors Affecting Performance”. This work is part of a three-year R&D program sponsored by Outotec to better understand the BIOX bacterial culture.

The first two days of the conference took place at a hotel in Manila. On February 27th delegates traveled by bus to Solano in Northern Luzon, some 280 km north of Manila, for a visit on February 28th to the Runruno gold-molybdenum project.

The Runruno plant visit was another highlight of the conference. The BIOX circuit is designed to treat 140,000 tpa of concentrate with a design capacity of 404 tpd of concentrate at a design sulfide sulfur grade of 17% S2-. One of the key objectives for FCF Minerals was to optimize the CAPEX and OPEX efficiency of the project. This was achieved by leveraging new technologies, critically reviewing all design aspects, and making use of local contractors as far as possible. The Runruno project was also the first implementation of the Generation III BIOX design principles, with a focus on improving the process robustness and making operation easier. Commissioning took place during June 2016 and, after a protracted ramp-up, full BIOX operations were established during Q3 2018.

With a capacity of 5,000 m3/day, the Runruno ASTER™ is both the largest ASTER circuit to date and the first ASTER application on a diluted feed slurry containing ~4–6% solids. The circuit has been operating stably since Q4 2017.