FENI
The FENI plant, in operation since 1982, is a two-line, rotary kiln electric furnace facility. When the plant was acquired in 2005, only one of its two lines was operational and annual nickel production was approximately 5,000 tonnes. Following technical additions and capital investment by the group the plant is now fully operational, with two lines running simultaneously. Since its acquisition, the group has increased production at the FENI plant to approximately 16,000 tonnes of nickel per annum.
A substantial portion of FENI’s nickel ore comes by conveyor from the open pit Rzanovo mine. The Rzanovo ore is blended with higher-grade imported ores in order to optimise production.
On each line, the plant operates a rotary dryer that feeds into a rotary kiln where the nickel ore is dried and reduced, and, then fed into an electric furnace for fully reduction into a molten nickel/iron alloy. The nickel/iron alloy is placed into an oxygen converter and blown with oxygen to reduce the iron content and thereby increase the nickel content. The nickel is then transported to a holding furnace where the temperature is raised to cast the metal, either as pellets or ingots.
Policies and standards
FENI Industries is cognisant of its responsibility to consistently provide its customers with products of the highest quality. All employees are bound to the company’s stringent product and process-oriented quality management system. FENI Industries is IS09001:2000 certified (PDF – 158KB), for more information see the company's Quality Policy (PDF – 133KB).
By subscribing to the ISO 14000 standard for Environmental Management Systems, FENI Industries demonstrates its commitment to minimising the negative effects of its operations on the environment. Environmental concern is inherent in all business decisions, for more information see FENI's Environmental Protection Policy (PDF – 116KB).