WHAT WE DO
Our areas of activity
Ferroalloys Business
XEAL integrates two ferroalloy production plants: one located in the town of Cee and the other, 10 km away, located in the town of Dumbría.
These have an annual production capacity of 189,000 tons, plus 17,000 tons of microsilica and 7,000 tons of pulp.
The Cee Plant is dedicated to the production of ferrosilicon, ferromanganese, silico-manganese and silica fume or microsilica. In addition, as an auxiliary activity, Söderberg electrode paste is obtained.
The Dumbría Plant is dedicated to the production of ferrosilicon, refined ferrosilicon and silica fume or microsilica.
Cee Factory Facilities
About the CEE factory
Ferro-silicon is obtained by carbothermal reduction in three-phase semi-closed electric submerged arc furnaces that reach temperatures of around 3000º C.
The production processes for ferromanganese and silico-manganese are similar to those described for ferrosilicon, with the difference that, at the same time that metal is produced, slag is also generated in quantities that can reach up to 1.3 t./t metal.
The facilities available for these processes are Furnace 13, with 39 MVA of power, and Furnace 14, with 28 MVA, which differ from the ferrosilicon furnace mainly in that they are closed furnaces.
Other factory facilities include:
- Söderberg electrode paste plant, which is used to manufacture the electrodes for the furnaces.
- Plant for crushing and classification of ferromanganese and silico-manganese.
- Slag crushing plant.
- Laboratory for analysis of raw materials and finished products.
- Warehouse for various materials and spare parts.
- Truck weighing scale.
- General Office Building.
- Office building and maintenance workshop.
About the Dumbría factory
The Dumbría plant has two furnaces for the production of Ferrosilicon in different qualities, Furnace 21, of 39 MVA, and Furnace 22, of 72 MVA.
As an auxiliary installation to each of these furnaces, there is a bag filter to purify the kiln fumes by dry process, from which a product is obtained in powder form called Silica Fume (Microsilica).
Cee Factory Facilities
Other factory facilities include:
- Crushing and classification of the finished product.
- Raw material overhead crane.
- Maintenance Workshop.
- Truck weighing scale.
- Offices
Description of manufactured products
Ferrosilicon (FeSi)
It is used in the production of steels and cast iron, mainly providing hardness and its deoxidizing character, and together with other products, in the manufacture of stainless steels (profiles, bearings, electrical machine parts, etc.).
Ferromanganese (FeMn)
Material used as a steel desulfurizer and as a raw material in the manufacture of manganese steels.
Silicomanganese (SiMn)
A substitute for ferrosilicon and ferromanganese in steel additions, silicon provides the deoxidizing character and manganese the desulfurizing character. In the manufacture of refined ferromanganese it is used as a reductant.
Silica fume or microsilica
It is an amorphous inorganic product of high fineness produced in ferrosilicon factories. Its pronounced pozzolanic properties and high fineness make it possible to prepare mortars and concretes of lower porosity, i.e., with a more homogeneous and denser structure. It is also used in the manufacture of refractories, for soil stabilization and for the production of fibrocement.
Söderberg-type electrode paste
Söderberg-type electrometallurgical paste used for the manufacture of continuous self-firing electrodes, the current production of which is almost entirely for own consumption in the two plants.
The electrode paste is a mixture composed of degassed anthracite, pitch and coke or anthracite fines , without graphitization.
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