CalEnergy Expands Geothermal Operations and Adds Zinc Recovery

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Private energy producer (PEP) CalEnergy Company Incorporated, a subsidiary of privately owned MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company (Des Moines, Iowa), is in the start-up mode for its new zinc recovery plant. In development for over five years, the $148 million plant is designed to recover 30,000 tons per year of zinc from brine water circulated from the company's Salton Sea geothermal energy operations located in Southern California's Imperial Valley. AMEC plc (LSE:AMEC.L) (London, United Kingdom) completed the engineering and construction on the project.

AMEC replaced Kvaerner Metals (San Ramon, California) in 2001 as the E&C firm on the project after a dispute arose between CalEnergy and Kvaerner concerning the plant's performance. Kvaerner had been involved with the project since 1998. A future phase of the project may involve construction of a manganese recovery plant.

CalEnergy operates close to 1,300 megawatts (MW) of power generation worldwide, including six geothermal plants in California. The companies next big project in the area will be the Salton Sea VI project, which will be a $350 million 200 MW geothermal power plant. An E&C firm will be selected by the end of the year. Bidders for the project include AMEC and Kiewit Industrial Company (Lexana, Kansas).