Indian Metals Corporation Case Study (Sarah Mountney, Kenneth Work and Stuart Chambers) Introduction ‘The problem isn't the plant itself, i's the way it's being run." ‘After four weeks in this remote part of north India, John Daley had seen at first hand the immense problems at the Lead and Zinc Processing Plant and was pleased to be heading home. He stared at the views from the taxi for the final time. The only signs of industrialisation in this isolated, mainly agricultural area were the makeshift sheds at the side of the road which had been put up by local villagers to service the trucks going to and from the plant. John was part of a UN development team which had visited the site at the request of a team of European technical experts who were already on-site. The large processing plant and adjacent mine were owned by the Indian Metals Corporation (IMC).The complex had become operational in 1990. The Refinery The plant used a method known as the Dual Refinery Process (DRP) to extract lead and zinc from the mined ore. This method had been a new venture for IMC and John’s UN agency had been involved in the development of the plant. The mine was a great success. The refinery, however, was experiencing immense problems and it was hoped that the European team and the UN team could help to resolve them. Despite processing half the company’s zinc output, the plant had only ever operated at a maximum of half its capacity level. The layout of the plant is shown in Figure 10.4 A mixture of ore (from the mine) and other inputs were brought into the plant and processed into pre-produet. Pre-product is a blend of inputs of a certain size and composition designed to enable the next stage, the furnace, to operate at maximum performance. The pre-product is broken down inside the furnace and both molten lead and molten zinc are tapped off and sent to the separate refineries for further processing. Lead processing is run in batches, but only when enough stock has built up to enable the refinery to run economically. Any contaminated or scrap lead can be recycled back into the furnace. The zinc refinery has to run continuously to pre- vent damage to the equipment, Large levels of buffer stock are needed to keep the refinery running because the furnace and pre-product units are unreliable and liable to shut down. Other than zinc and lead, useful by-products produced are sulphuric acid, gold, cadmium and arsenic, all of which are processed and sold. A non-toxic black sand is also produced which is sold as landfillFigure 10.1. The plant layout ‘acid plant John's visit to the plant John's taxi arrived back at The Colony, seven kilometres away, where the plant workers lived. A sketch of The Colony is shown in Figure 10.2 Figure 10.2 The Colony Junior management |, Rousing soft ‘ie ; management homing: .ousing Contractors! barracks ‘cornu With the surrounding area being so isolated, the company had built it for staff at all levels, The houses, for staff and their families, ranged from fairly luxurious for senior management to communal barracks for contract workers, most of whom sent moneyhome to their families. Basic living expenses and transport costs to and from work ‘were paid for by the company. In all, the residents seemed satisfied with the ameni- ties. John, however, did not like the surrounding barbed wire fence nor the look of the local militia who patrolled it. Back in the hotel, he began to think about the main aspects of his visit to be included in a presentation to his superiors on his return, Working conditions He remembered how shocked the team had been at conditions inside the plant on their first visit. This visit had been the cause of some controversy - the team of European experts had been unhappy at the decision to allow the UN team inside as they thought it too dangerous, John and his team wore hard hats and masks, but had never received any safety briefing. The first area they visited was the zinc refinery. The most obvious sight was the piles of lead and zinc dust everywhere. Zinc buffer stocks were also stored near equipment, and often across walkways and emergency exits. The team watched as a man stood on a 50mm girder over a conveyor belt from which hot zinc blocks (at around 250°C) were emerging. As each block appeared, he aligned it with the belt. This was repeated every 10 seconds. The man was not wearing any protective clothing. Their guide told them that, as a contractor, he was not entitled to any. The team watched, impressed by the contractor's balance. If he had fallen down onto a block he would have burned to death before anyone could help him. The entire area was hazardous. As John had leaned back and put his hand out to support himself on what he thought was a horizontal sheet of aluminium, the guide swifily stopped him. The aluminium sheet was in fact molten zinc. The staff The next area he visited was the pre-product plant, where the ore and inputs were crushed and processed for the furnace. Here, John talked to Mr Singh, the shift manager: ‘Ive worked here since the plant opened five years ago. As a shift manager, | work seven days a week from 5.30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and I'm on call all night. The hours are excessive compared to other places, | must say. The pay here is low, but we do have some perks if we don't make waves and are liked by our managers. Perks include your own tea boy. ‘Although I'm the shift manager, I'm not really foo sure where my responsibilities lie, or sometimes even what | can and can't do. if there's @ problem, / pass it on to my ‘manager. That's how it is supposed to go - up the chain of command Eventually, it ‘comes down again. The management is very strict here and | prefer not to make a decision unless | really have to, because | could be punished. ‘Thad a situation only a few weeks ago. | was called in at night because that waste recycling machine over there wasn't working property - it was making odd clanking noises. | didn't really know what to do about it - | wasn't going to close the plant down, that would be unthinkable, so | phoned my manager at home in The Colony.