Xstrata Nickel / Latin America
Falcondo, Bonao
Xstrata Nickel: World > Latin America
| Detail label | Value |
|---|---|
| Location | Dominican Republic, South America |
| Products | Ferronickel |
| Employees | 1,800 |
| Annual production capacity | Falcondo has the capacity to produce 29,000 tonnes of nickel contained in ferronickel annually |
Description of Operation
Falcondo is a ferronickel surface mining operation located in the Dominican Republic, in the town of Bonao, 80 kilometres north of Santo Domingo. Ferronickel is a combination of iron and nickel used by the stainless steel industry. Facilities at the mine include a metallurgical treatment plant, a crude oil refinery and a 200 megawatt thermal power plant. Xstrata owns 85.26% of the outstanding shares of Falcondo. Mined ore is transported to the metallurgical where it is dried, briquetted and fed to shaft furnaces where it is calcined and the nickel and iron oxides are partially reduced in the solid state to metallics. The ore is then transported and smelted in two electric furnaces. After refining, the metal is cast into ferrocones, which contain roughly 40% nickel and 60% iron and trucked to the Port of Haina near Santo Domingo where they are shipped to market. Falcondo’s power plant supplies the metallurgical complex with all its power. Crude oil is piped 80 kilometers from Santo Domingo where it is converted into naphtha for the reduction furnaces, diesel for mobile equipment and fuel oil for the power plant. Excess power and diesel is sold to third parties.
Brief History of the Operation
Production began in 1971. In July 1999, Falcondo became the first ferronickel facility in the world to be ISO 14001 certified.