Background

The NUI PHAO poly metallic Project, is spread over an area of 9.21km2 and is located in the Dai Tu District of the Thai Nguyen Province in Vietnam, approximately 80km northwest of Hanoi by  road.

Masan Resources is developing Nui Phao into a unique poly metallic mine with reserves of tungsten, fluorspar, bismuth, copper and gold. The mine has estimated reserves of 52.5 million tons of ore. Nui Phao will become one of the Worlds lowest cost and long life producers of tungsten, acid grade fluorspar and bismuth.

Operating Processes

The products will be separated from the ore using a combination of conventional froth floatation and gravity separation processes, along with milling processing, consisting of rod mills and ball mills.

Special Requirements

The Installation procedure of the vinyl ester lining system was chosen to give maximum protection to the floor, baffle, flanges, nozzles and internal shell of the tank. These tanks had been specifed  to be rubber lined but due to unavailability of material, Trepax proposed to use an FRP vinyl ester lining system as an alternative, this has proven to be a success, so therefore another surge tank at Nui Phao was lined with the same system 3months after the frst one. Trepax has successfully applied this type of system on previous projects, where it has proved effective in protecting the vessels from the corrosive environment. A total of 14 tanks have been lined in this FRP system in various process areas within the plant, at Nui Phao.

Corrosion Protection

Due to the high temperatures and chemical corrosive content of the process the surge tank was lined in a heavy duty reinforced composite vinyl ester lining system, with a highly abrasive and  hemical resistant trowel applied top coat to help protect the tank internals from corrosion and erosion. This system gives the same protection and long term performance as rubber but with the advantage of being more economical to install.

System

A heavy duty reinforced multi layered composite vinyl ester lining system, with a highly abrasive and chemical resistant trowel applied topcoat.

Project Details

Location	Thai Nguyen, Vietnam
Project	Nui Phao Tungsten Surge Tank
Owner	Masan Resources
EPC	Masan Resources
Date	2013 / 2015
Work	Tungsten Surge Tank
System	Vinyl Ester Lining
Area	700 m2
Value	US$ 250,000