Horsehead Update on Mooresboro, NC Facility
10/1/2015
PITTSBURGH--October 1, 2015--Horsehead Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: ZINC) today issued an update on operations at its Mooresboro, North Carolina zinc production facility. The Company reported that the facility produced approximately 3,000 tons of zinc cathode in September, most of which was converted to cast product, and shipped approximately 3,100 tons from the Mooresboro facility. Shipment of metal from Mooresboro was supplemented with the sale of approximately 10,700 tons of zinc calcine in September.
'We were pleased with the successful start-up of the bleed treatment pilot plant which began to ramp-up by mid-September. We believe this pilot plant will provide up to 100 tons per day of incremental zinc production capacity by easing the bottleneck in bleed treatment once fully commissioned. We are currently achieving flows comparable to two-thirds of the level required for that increase in production. We are very pleased that the initial results of the pilot plant indicate that we have the potential of simplifying the flow-sheet when we build the full-scale version. We also discovered that we need to add some additional pumping and clarifier capacity to realize the full capacity of the pilot unit which we expect to implement shortly. As a result of the debottlenecking provided by the pilot plant we were at times able to achieve daily production rates approaching our best levels of the year', said Jim Hensler, President & CEO.
In order to address the low current efficiency issues reported last month caused primarily by the up and down nature of the operation , we took an outage during the second week of September to install a new control system for a portion of the current bleed treatment circuit. This new system has significantly improved the reliability of the bleed treatment plant resulting in a more stable operation and debottlenecked the residue filter presses to a significant extent. In addition, we instituted a new control philosophy in the leach-solvent extraction area which has added a further degree of stability. While further work needs to be done, primarily around process control in Leach, the current efficiency started to improve during the latter half of the month.'
Production suffered a setback at the end of the month due to the failure of one of the cell house cooling tower fans which forced us to reduce production rates. We expect a new fan to be installed early next week.
The number of electrodes in service in the cell house was 82 per cell during September maintaining the maximum plating capacity at approximately 250 tons per day. Now that the bleed treatment pilot plant has started up, we will start adding cathodes and anodes to the cell house once we consistently produce at the 250 tons per day level.
In addition to the upgrades to the control systems completed in September which we believe should improve plant reliability going forward we also upgraded another of the problematic pumps during the month. During the fourth quarter we expect to connect the previously installed bypass around the first SX settler to allow solids removal from that settler, modify the design of the mixer tanks on the settlers to remove a potential bottleneck, upgrade components in the hydrochloric acid recovery circuit to improve corrosion resistance, upgrade the Waelz oxide delivery system to the leaching process to minimize further plugging issues and improve process control of the circuit, further upgrade the control system in bleed treatment and complete the first phase of an upgrade to the acid distribution system. However, we cannot guarantee that these improvements will be finally completed during the fourth quarter, or fully address the operational challenges we have faced, or that additional challenges might not arise.
There will be no separate update on October production the first week in November. Information related to October performance at Mooresboro will be provided as part of our November 9, 2015 third quarter 2015 earnings release.
About Horsehead
Horsehead Holding Corp. ('Horsehead') (Nasdaq: ZINC) is the parent company of Horsehead Corporation, a leading U.S. producer of specialty zinc and zinc-based products and a leading recycler of electric arc furnace dust; The International Metals Reclamation Company LLC ('INMETCO'), a leading recycler of metals-bearing wastes and a leading processor of nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries in North America; and Zochem Inc., a zinc oxide producer located in Brampton, Ontario. Horsehead, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., employs approximately 700 people and has seven facilities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Visit http://www.horsehead.net/ for more information.
Cautionary Statement about Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about operational developments and future operating levels and production rates. These statements are based on assumptions, estimates and information available to us at the time of this press release and are not guarantees of future performance. Our actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements. We can give no assurances that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if any of them do, what impact they will have on our results of operations and financial condition. You should carefully read the factors described in the 'Risk Factors' section of our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a description of certain risks that could, among other things, cause our actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and we undertake no obligation to revise or update this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.
Contact info:
Ali Alavi
Sr. Vice President
Horsehead Holding Corp.
724.773.2212