Yunfu Pyrite Commences Production of 400 000 T/A Sulfuric Acid    

China's largest pyrite resources owner Yunfu Pyrite Enterprises Group Corporation (Yunfu Pyrite) announced on December 9th that the first boiling furnace of its new 400 000 t/a sulfuric acid project has fully operated for two weeks since its trial run on November 25th. Sulfuric acid and iron ore concentrates from the project have already been sold into the market. The pyrite, feedstock of this unit, comes from Yunfu Pyrite's own mine, in which the content of sulfur is 48%. The furnace has a diameter of 8.2 meters, the largest of its kind in China.
   This project is co-invested by Yunfu Pyrite, Guangxi Luzhai Chemical Fertilizer Company Ltd. and Hunan Junze Assets Operation and Administration Company Ltd., with Yunfu Pyrite holding 61% equity. The construction was started on September 27th, 2007 with a total planned investment of RMB267 million. Besides 400 000 t/a sulfuric acid, the project can also produce 200 000 t/a ferrous ore concentrates and generate 15 000 kW/h of electric power.   
   Yunfu Pyrite, located in Yunfu of Guangdong province, expects to gain a sale revenue of RMB200 million annually from this project.
   A large amount of residues will always be produced in traditional pyrite based sulfuric acid project, which can not be utilized efficiently and bring about a serious problem. In the past ten years, the pyrite based sulfuric acid process is nearly replaced by the sulfur based sulfuric acid process and the country's pyrite production has gone down. Several large pyrite owning companies including Yunfu Pyrite have tried to use high sulfur containing pyrite to make sulfuric acid for many years. In this new project, the residue of pyrite can be fully utilized.