BHP Billiton's Nickel West Kwinana Refinery Celebrates 40 years

In 2010, Nickel West Kwinana celebrated 40 years since its first nickel briquettes were shipped from the refinery. 

Employees and contractors gathered for a celebratory morning tea, with Maintenance Administrator Kylie Smith, General Manager Brett Swayn and Nickel West President Wayne Isaacs cutting up three enormous cakes for the team to enjoy.

A snapshot of a Kwinana icon:

• The Kwinana Nickel Refinery was designed and constructed to treat nickel concentrate from Kambalda and produce 15,000 tonne per year of nickel metal.
• Construction commenced in June 1968 and first nickel was flashed over into the receiving tanks in May 1970. The refinery was officially declared open in September of 1970.
• Kwinana was chosen for the refinery location as ammonia (for leaching), fuel oil (steam) and naptha or another petroleum source (for hydrogen production) were all required for process input and were readily available in the Kwinana industrial area.
• The decision was made in 1970 to process nickel matte with the construction of a flash smelter at Kalgoorlie. Construction of the smelter commenced in early 1971, with first matte produced at Nickel West Kalgoorlie in December 1972. From this point on, Nickel West Kwinana began to treat a mixture of nickel matte and nickel concentrate.
• An expansion in 1977 enabled an increase in production to 30,000 tonne per year and production rates were running at close to 27,000 tonne per year.
• In 1985, the switch was made from a matte/concentrate feed to only matte.
• By 1993, the refinery had a capacity to produce around 32,000 tonne per year of nickel metal.
• The refinery was expanded and modernised in 1992-94, to a capacity of 45,000 tonnes per year.
• Further debottlenecking projects completed in 1999 and 2005, together with a sustained lift in the nickel concentration in solution increased the refinery capacity to approximately 65,000 tonne per year.
• In addition, a complete replacement of the hydrogen sulphide plant was completed in 2007.

Nickel West Kwinana is now set for exciting times with the approval of the Kwinana Modular Hydrogen Plant Replacement Project.

Kwinana is located approximately 30Kms from Perth.