Our businesses

Ore and sinter: in Moanda (Gabon), Comilog produces manganese ore from an opencast deposit.

The overburden is only four or five metres thick. The ore is extracted using hydraulic shovels and processed at the enrichment plant (washing plant).

The average grade of marketed ore is 48%.

Since 2001, Comilog has also been producing (richer) manganese sinter from unsaleable ore fines. This means that reserves last longer and waste is reduced, as part of a rationale of sustainable development.

This is the main process used worldwide to produce standard manganese alloys (high-carbon ferromanganese, particularly silicomanganese) from ore.

In an additional stage (ladle treatment), purer alloys, called ‘refined’ alloys, are produced, which contain low levels of carbon.

This process, which is seldom used today outside China and the CIS, is used to produce high-carbon ferromanganese. Energy for the process is provided by coke.