Bergamo Dec 12th, 2009

 

Hatch, the Canadian based Engineering company, awarded OMB valves s.p.a. an order for forged steel valves, floating ball valves and trunnion mounted ball valves for the Pueblo Viejo gold and silver mine. Most of the valves OMB will supply to Hatch are in special materials such as Alloy 20, Nickel Copper alloy UNSN04400, F51 and Titanium.

The mine is located in the central portion of the Dominican Republic, near the town of Cotui, and 100 km northwest of the capital city Santo Domingo.

The Hatch EPCM team is responsible for two areas of the plant:

•          Area 4141 Pressure Oxidation Units (Autoclaves).

•          Area 4144 Air Separation Units (Oxygen Plant).

Area 4144 is a dedicated cryogenic air separation facility capable of producing 4000 t/d of 99.5% pure oxygen. The oxygen will be used in the oxidation process for facilitating gold extraction. Area 4141 includes the autoclave vessels, slurry pre-heat vessels, pressure letdown vessels, vent gas cyclones, vent gas quenching, gas scrubbing and related support services and utilities. The refractory-lined autoclave vessels operate at 230°C and 37bar(g).

Upon its completion in 2011, Pueblo Viejo will be the largest pressure oxidation facility (both in ore throughput and oxidation capacity) in the world.