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Saldanha Works Experiences Incident at its Corex Unit

05/28/2009 - ArcelorMittal South Africa’s Saldanha plant experiences an accident at its Corex facility that may have been caused by a leak of liquid iron through the furnace shell. No one was injured during the incident.

ArcelorMittal South Africa’s Saldanha plant experienced an accident at its Corex facility this Tuesday (25 May 2009).
 
The company said that details about the cause of the accident had not yet been determined, although it appears that liquid iron may have burnt through the furnace’s steel shell at an emergency tap hole. If the leaked iron came into contact with cooling water pipes, it would have caused a number of explosions as well as a cloud of steam.
 
Although no one was injured during the incident, the company evacuated all employees and contractors from the plant for about one hour as a safety precaution. The fire that resulted from the incident was put out within half an hour.
 
The company said that a thorough assessment of the damage and the impact on the plant’s operation was currently underway, with results likely to be finalized and released over the next several days. The company further noted that it would make every effort to ensure that the Saldanha plant is re-opened and operational as soon as possible.
 
Although the Saldanha facility’s normal steel capacity is approximately 100,000 tonnes a month, it has most recently been operating at capacity levels between 60 and 65%.