Tenova Mining & Minerals announces that ifs Group company Tenova Pyromet, has successfully completed the replacement of Assmang Chrome Machadodorp Works Furnace No 2's electrode pressure rings, 4 weeks ahead of schedule.

Awarded as a turnkey contract in April 2012, the project involved the verification and adjustment of designs, supply and installation of lower electrode equipment, including pressure rings and heat shields, manufactured from stainless steel, as opposed to the mild steel of the original equipment.

The conversion to stainless steel was necessary to enable the equipment to withstand the higher temperatures required for smelting manganese. The fast track contract was originally scheduled for a 16 week duration, but at the client's request, was reduced to 12 weeks.

The furnace conversion was carried out without a single lost-time injury during the 1 850 manhours worked.

Mr Francois Smith Project Manager of Tenova Pyromet said that "This was a significant achievement, given the challenging conditions of the brownfields project. We were working in very tight spaces, which required much of the rigging and moving of heavy equipment to be carried out manually."

Tenova Pyromet was responsible for the original Furnace 2 Rebuild, when the furnace was still producing ferrochrome. The 33 MVA, 29 MW furnace featured a 1 270 millimeter Tagliaferri electrode column and was designed to produce 69 000 tonne per annum of ferrochrome. The rebuild took place over 10 months from December 2004 to September 2005.

However, the Tenova Group's relationship with Assmang Limited, stretches far back to 1971, with the design and supply of two 12 MVA furnaces to produce molten slag at that time.