MOA BAY NICKEL COMPLEX, CUBA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: NGA Records (Formerly NIMA)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78T05439A000300280087-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 17
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 27, 2000
• Sequence Number: 87
• Publication Date: March 1, 1964
• Content Type: REPORT

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CIA/PIR-1002/64
March 1964
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
PHOTOGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE REPORT
MOA BAY NICKEL COMPLEX, CUBA
DECLASSIFICATION REVIEW by NIMA/DOD 3/22/00
Published and Disseminated by
NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION CENTER
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NO FOREIGN DIGGEM GRDUP d, _,. o..d,..o..d d.. r.. r,..~~..
 t
SECRET
NO FOREIGN DISSEM
PHOTOGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE REPORT
MOA BAY NICKEL COMPLEX, CUBA
SECRET
NO FOREIGN DISSEM
 Approved For Release 2000/08/23 CIA-RDP78TO5439A000300280087-7
SECRET
A nickel-cobalt industrial complex located
near Moa, Cuba, is essentially a commercial in-
dustry. The complex is divided into three sec-
tions: a mining area, a nickel and cobalt plant,
and abort facility capable of serving oceangoing
vessels. The material which is shipped from this
complex is not a finished product, however, but is
a nickel-cobalt sulphide in slurry form. The
complex was originally owned by an American
firm, and the slurry was shipped by tanker to
Louisiana where the sulphide was converted to
metals in powder and briquette form for sale to
industrial consumers. Collateral reports and
ground photographs are availabld from the period
of American ownership, and many aerial photo-
graphic missions have covered the site since the
change in Cuban government.
25X1A
25X1A
The Moa Bay Nickel Complex, one of two
nickel processing facilities in Cuba, is located
along the northeastern coast in Provincia de
Oriente near the town of Moa (20-38N 74-56W),
about 45 nautical miles (nm) northeast of the
US Guantanamo -Naval Base (Figure 1). The Moa
complex covers an area of approximately 18
square miles and includes a mining area, a
nickel and cobalt plant , and
a port facility which serves
oceangoing vessels (Figure 2). The product is
not in finished form but is a slurry. The other
Cuban nickel processing plant is along the same
coast near Nicaro (20-42N 75-33W).
Prior to the change in Cuban government the
Moa complex had been owned by the Freeport
Nickel Company, a subsidiary of Freeport Sul-
phur Company of New York. For reasons of cost,
it was feasible for the firm to divide the pro-
cessing of. the Moa ores between two sites. For
economy in transport, the nickel-bearing Moa
ores should be partially refined and concentrated
before shipment; preparation of the final metal,
however, requires large volumes of ammonia and
hydrogen, and a good source of inexpensive
natural gas is needed to synthesize both process
hydrogen and hydrogen'for ammonia. Therefore,
the ore was treated and a concentrate for ship-
ment produced at the Moa complex; a refinery
especially designed to treat the Moa slurry was
constructed at Port Nickel, Louisiana (where
natural gas is available), and this plant produced
nickel and cobalt metals.
During the period of American ownership,
the slurry was shipped in special tankers to Port
Nickel. Aerial photography indicates that since
the Cuban revolution the slurry has been trans-
ported from Cuba in barrels aboard conventional
freighters.
Creation of harbor facilities to accommo-
date oceangoing vessels in the vicinity of Moa
MOA BAY
NICKEL
COMPLEX
NPIC N-835? l3/64)
FIGURE 7. LOCATION OF MOA BAY NICKEL COMPLEX,
CUBA.
 included dredging both a channel and a turning
basin; the difference in water depth can be ob-
served on aerial photography of the site (Figure
2). These port facilities can serve vessels of
up to 10,000 tons.
Although there is no (Dail service at the site,
each section of the complex is road served, and
-there is road service between the three areas and
from the complex to other nearby towns. An air-
strip is also visible west of the harbor area. The
slurry is transported from the mining area to the
concentrating plant by a gravity-flow pipeline;
the American owners used cement-type trucks
to carry the concentrate from the plant to the
harbor storage tanks.
Because the complex was constructed by an
American firm, and it included some techniques
new at the time of construction in the late 1950s,
useful articles on the processes, products, and
design of the facilities are available in American
trade magazines of 1959 and 1960. 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/
0
Ground photographs made by an employee shortly
before the change in Cuban government have been
-valuable in identifying structures and describing
the relationships between various facilities; a
number of these photographs are used to illus-
trate his report. The entire installation has been
observed frequently on aerial photography since
the nationalization of Cuban industry by the
Castro government.
In describing the structures and processes
at the complex, this report considers each of the
three major sections of the facility in the chrono-
logical order of the procedures involved. Anno-
tated line drawings present the dimensions and
identify the functions of the principal structures,
and flow charts depict the major steps involved
in refining and concentrating the raw ore into
slurry for shipment. The procedures described
are those followed during the period of American
ownership.
The ores processed at the Moa complex are
located in a series of gentle terraces which ex-
tend inland about 4 nm from the coast. Favorable
topography with adequate subsurface drainage
has been largely responsible for the development
of the high-grade Moa ores; these nickel-bearing
iron deposits occur as a surface mantle of red-
dish-brown soil varying in thickness from 10 to
100 feet. The open-pit method is used in mining
these ores; a layout of the mining area can be
seen on Figure 3, and Figure 4 presents a ground
view of this section of the complex.
The nickel-bearing ores at Moa average
about 1.35 percent nickel, 0.13 percent cobalt,
and 46.5 percent iron; the Moa deposits differ
significantly from those at the other major Cuban
nickel facility, Nicaro, about 45 nm to the west.
The small amount of magnesium in the Moa Bay
ores makes it feasible to use acid-leaching
techniques which cannot be applied to the high-
magnesium Nicaro ores. The Moa deposits con-
tain about twice as much cobalt as those at
Nicaro and include little silicate-type serpentine
ore.
A separation of ore materials by 20-mesh
screening (20 openings to the linear'inch) is suffi-
cient to prepare suitable processing plant feed
from the high-grade Moa deposits. The steps in
the slurry preparation system can be followed on
a flow chart (Figure 5). In preparation for the
acid-leaching process the ore is combined with
water to form a slurry and wet screened at 20-
mesh. An apron feeder and inclined belt con-
veyer (Figure 6) feed ore from trucks or storage
 SECRET
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 rcie ..-esewieu
FIGURE 4. GENERAL VIEW OF MINING AREA FROM THE
NORTH, MAY 1960.
CIA/PIR- 1002/64
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FIGURE 6. CONVEYERS AND SLURRY PREPARATION PLANT
VIEWED FROM THE LOADING PLATFORM, MAY 1960.
FINISHED SLURRY
TO PIPELINE
(25 TO 30t'. SOLIDS)
piles into the slurry preparation plant where a
coarse vibrating screen or grizzly removes
large stray rocks. The finer material goes
directly to mechanical trough (log) washers, and
the slurry from the washers at a concentration
of about 25 percent solids passes through two
more screening stages. The oversize rock from
the initial screening is scrubbed free of any re-
maining ore in a cylindrical scrubber and then
passes through a jaw crusher; the crushed rock
is combined with rejected material from the two
slurry screenings and carried by belt conveyers
to a mined-out disposal area adjacent to the
slurry plant.
S
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SHAKING
CONVEYER
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CYLINDRICAL
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A layout of the facilities in and aroond'the
main nickel and cobalt plant can be found on
Figure 7. The screened raw ore slurry moves
from the mining area through a gravity-flow
pipeline approximately 14,000 feet long to the
main plant (Figure 8) and enters an elevated
splitter box from which it can be fed through
pipes to either or both of two storage thickeners,
25X1 D each in outside diameter (item 1, Figure
7). The slurry enters the thickeners at a density
of 25 percent solids and is settled to over 45
percent solids to provide feed for the leaching
process. The overflow water is recirculated to
the slurry preparation plant by two-stage cen-
trifugal pumps.
A critical stage in the Moa Bay process is
the selective leaching of nickel and cobalt from
the predominant gangue fraction (the nonvaluable
minerals in the raw ore). The ore slurry which
enters the leaching plant (Figure 9 and item 5,
Figure 7) is entirely mixed oxides; there are no
sulphates, sulphides, or carbonates.
The leaching system is split into four iden-
tical reaction trains, each Qth four vessels ar-
ranged in series (Figure 10). The vessels in
which the leaching reaction takes place measure
10 feet in diameter and are 50 feet high. Raw
ore slurry at the maximum density that can be
prepared and handled is pumped from the storage
thickeners through preheaters, where it is heated
by direct absorption of steam at a pressure of
30 pounds per square inch (psi), and into me-
chanically agitated storage tanks; each reaction
train has two of these tanks. Rubber-lined
centrifugal booster pumps pump the slurry into
a slurry heater tower above the first reaction
vessel; steam at 650 psi is used to heat the
slurry. Following a four-stage continuous
gravity-flow pattern, the slurry passes through
all four reaction vessels. Sulphuric acid at 90
percent concePLration is fed into the first vessel,
and high-pressure steam at 650 psi is introduced
into all four vessels to induce agitation and
circulation. The leach slurry overflowing the
fourth vessel passes through a heat exchanger
(slurry cooler), through special flow control
chokes, and into a flash tank. Steam from the
cooler at 30 psi and from the flash tank at
atmospheric pressure is utilized elsewhere in
the plant area. From the flash tank the slurry
flows by gravity to the washing and neutraliza-
tion systems (Figure 11).
A second important phase of the Moa Bay
operation is the preparation of a high-grade con-
centrate from the dilute leach liquor. This
phase involves: separating the liquor from the
barren solids, adjusting the composition of the
liquor, and treating it to precipitate the con-
centrate.
A six-stage washing or counter-current de-
cantation (CCD) system (Figure 12 and item 9,
Figure 7) separates the leach liquor from the
barren solids which settle readily to a density of
55 to 60 percent and can be thoroughly washed
with relatively little dilution of the solids. Be-
cause of the temperature of the slurry, the tanks
for the first two stages are concrete and lined
with acid-proof brick over asphaltic membrane;
the tanks of the last four stages have concrete
ring walls, protected by acid-proof brick at the
solution level, and waterproof asphalt-paved
bottoms. The thickener mechanisms in the
system must be acid resistant. The washed
barren solids from the sixth stage CCDtank are
diluted with water for ease in handling and pump-
ed to an impounding basin.
The raw liquor from the first stage CCD
tank is pumped to the neutralization system
(Figure 13 and items 6, 7,' and 8, Figure 7)
where is is pretreated with impure hydrogen
I
 i
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f
16
25X1 D
1 STORAGE THICKENERS 377' DIAM
2 SULPHIDE PFECIPITATION PLANT
A 4 0' X 2 O' X _H
B 56' X 40' X 15' H
C 100' X 60o~
3 SULPHURIC LANT
A
50' DIAMA
4 LA06RATOR
5 LEACHING PLANT
A 7O' X 3O' X H
B = X 30' X ^H AT CENTER
6 RAW LIQUOR STORAGE 200' DIAM
7 TREATED LIQUOR STORAGE 200' DIAM
6 GYPSUM THICKENERS 140' DIAM
S CCD THICKENERS= DIAM
10 POWER PLAN 65' X 70' X 45' H
A 3 STACKS H
11 ELECTRICAL METAL SHOP
12 AUTO REPAIR BUILDING 100' X 100'
13 MECHANICAL WELDING SHOP_X 60'
14 WAREHOUSE 100'
15 PUMPING STATION 40' X 10'
16 WATER TREATMENT PLANT
17 FLARE TOWER 105' H
25X1 D
25X1 D
25X1 D
25X1 D
25X1 D
25X1 D
25X1 D
 SLURRY FROM
STORAGE THICKENER
NPIC _-' --
FIGURE 8. PARTIAL VIEW OF NICKEL AND COBALT PLANT
AREA FROM THE NORTH, MAY 1960.
PIC H-8362 (3 /6:
FIGURE 9. GENERAL VIEW OF LEACHING PLANT FROM
THE NORTHEAST, MAY 1960.
SLURRY
PREHEATER
SLURRY
STORAGE
170' F
BOOSTER
PUMP
HIGH-PRESSURE
SLURRY PUMP
REACTION VESSELS
4-STAGE
CONTINUOUS
GRAVITY FLOW
Y Y Y.- Y
SLURRY
COOLER
FLOW CONTROL
CHOKES,
FLASH
STEAM
TO LIQUOR
PREHEATING
,AGITATION
STEAM
LEACH SLURRY
TO WASHING SYSTEM
FLASH
TANK
sulphide to destroy chromate chromium and to
reduce some ferric iron to a ferrous state. The
liquor is next treated with coral mud to remove
the free acidity.
The coral mud used in the neutralization
system is prepared (Figure 11) in a plant at the
port facility of the Moa Bay complex. The mud
is dredged from the landward side of an offshore
reef and transported by barge to the preparation
plant (Figure 14) along the docks; it is slurried
in fresh water, screened free of trash, and water-
washed in two stages to yield a solution containing
less than 500 parts per thousand of chloride. The
washing stages also thicken the coral mud which
is pumped to the neutralization system through a
pipeline approximately three miles long. Anal-
ysis of the washed coral indicates that it is over
90 percent calcium carbonate; its porous nature
results in a rapid reaction with the free acid in
the raw liquor.
Variable speed diaphragm pumps meter the
coral mud into the neutralization system which
is a four-stage cascade, or a series of four
mechanically agitated reacti tanks (Figure 11).
These wooden tanks are coered and provided
with draft fans to draw off carbon dioxide gener-
SECRET
NO 30REIGN DISSEM
STEAM
TO
PROCESS
t
s
 SECRET
LEA C H EO.
SLURRY WASH WATER
1ST STAGE
2-STAGE
VIBRATING
SCREENS
LIQUOR WASTE
STORAGE
- GYPSUM
THICKENERS
F_
CORAL
STORAGE
a
PRIMARY
THICKENER
SECONDARY
THICKENER
TREAT ED
1 LIQUOR
STORAGE
V U
TO SULPHIDE
NPIC H-8355 (3/64)
FIGURE 12. COUNTER-CURRENT DECANTATION TANKS,
WASHING SYSTEM, MAY 1960.
ated by the neutralization reaction. This reaction
precipitates gypsum (Figure 13) in proportion to
the amount of acid destroyed; the gypsum is re-
turned as a thickener sludge to the CCD system
handling the leached slurry.
The neutralized liquor which forms the feed
for the sulphide precipitation system (Figure 15
and item 2, Figure 7) is first pumped to pre-
FIGURE 13. VIEW OF NEUTRALIZATION SYSTEM FROM THE
SOUTHWEST, MAY 1960. Gypsum thickeners con be seen on the
right.
heaters; these are located in the leaching sys-
tem area to utilize atmospheric steam from the
leaching flash tanks. Then the liquor is pumped
to the heaters of the sulphide system proper
where direct contact with steam heats the liquor
further before it is pumped into precipitation
autoclaves. - These autoclaves are horizontal
cylinders, lined with acid-proof brick and divided
WATER
LOG
WASHER
CORAL PREPARATION SYSTEM
CORAL FROM BARGE
BY CLAMSHELL CRANE
WASHED BARREN SOLIDS
TO IMPOUNDING BASIN
CORAL
FEED
PUMP
PIPELINE
TO PLANT HIGH
(3 MILES) PRESSURE
SLUSH PUMP
 SECRET
NO FOREIGN DISSEM
Ic r-r- Jag IJ
FIGURE 14. RECEIVING HOPPER, CONVEYERS, AND SCREEN
TOWER, CORAL PREPARATION PLANT, MAY 1960.
internally into three compartments by brick
baffle walls; each compartment is fitted with a
mechanical agitator.
Gaseous, high-purity hydrogen sulphide is
injected into the autoclaves, precipitating 99
percent of the nickel and 98 percent of the cobalt
from the liquor as the sulphide product. This
precipitated slurry is blown directly down into
flash tanks, where the excess hydrogen sulphide
separates; the gas is cooled and dried by washing
with water and is_ recycled by compression to the
autoclaves. There are four complete trains
(heater, autoclave, and flash tank) in the pre-
cipitation system, of which one is a spare to
permit downtime for cleaning the scale generated
by the process.
The flashed liquor carrying the suspended
sulphide product flows by gravity to two thicken-
ers, each 60 feet in diameter, operating in paral-
lel. At this step the waste solids separate, and
the thickened sulphide is washed in two stages
by cooling water from the hydrogen sulphide
cooling system. The washed sulphide, now a
slurry with a density of about 65 percent solids,
is transferred by truck to storage tanks in the
port facility area.
LIQUOR FROM
NEUTRALIZATION HYDROGEN SULPHIDE
LIQUOR
HEATER
LIQUOR PREHEATER
(LOCATED IN LEACHING AREA)
FLASH
STEAM
AREA
PRODUCTI
STORAGE
LIQUOR FEED
PUMPS
SEED
TANKS
WASHING
THICKENERS
(2 STAGES)
PRODUCT SULPHIDE
TO PORT AREA STORAGE
RECYCLE
COMPRESSOR
PRECIPITATION
AUTOC LAVES
I SEED
PUMP
FLASH
TAN,.
SEPARATOR
GAS
COOLER
THIC KEN ERS
WASTE
SOLIDS
I
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1
When the Moa Bay complex was built, a
major port installation (Figure 16) was required
in order to serve the oceangoing vessels and to
handle and store the fuels, the slurry product,
and the materials needed in the various process-
es. A channel approximately 2,100 feet long was
dredged in the cove known as Bahia de Yaguasey
to the port entrance, which is about 350 feet
wide. The harbor itself is about 3,250 feet long,
and the turning basin is approximately 950 feet
wide. The dredged area is visible on aerial pho-
tography of the site (Figure 2).
A battery of 16 wooden tanks (item 1, Figure
16) for storage of the suspended sulphide product
is located at the port facility along the docking
facilities on the south side of the turning basin.
Each of the tanks measures about 20 feet in
diameter by 20 feet high. At the time of Ameri-
can ownership the slurry was permitted to settle
in these tanks; when a transfer from shore to
ship was planned, the slurry was resuspended by
a specially designed agitator which could be
The processing systems used at Moa Bay re-
quire three other auxiliary facilities in addition
to the coral preparation plant described earlier.
A plant to generate hydrogen sulphide (Figure
18), a plant to prepare hydrogen (Figure 19),
and a plant to produce sulphuric acid (Figure 20)
are located in the area of the nickel and cobalt
plant.
Hydrogen sulphide for the sulphide precipi-
tation system is generated by direct reaction of
hydrogen with sulphur; this reaction is self-sup-
porting and needs no supplemental heat. The hy-
drogen sulphide, before cooling and liquefaction,
is scrubbed with molten sulphur to strip out un-
reacted sulphur vapor. The hydrogen needed for
the process is prepared by reforming liquified
moved from tank to tank. A pipeline then carried
the slurry into the special tankers. Aerialpho-
tography of the port facility since the change in
Cuban government indicates that the slurry pro-
duct has been shipped in barrels aboard con-
ventional freighters.
In addition to the product storage tanks,
other facilities are located in the area of the
south side of the turning basin (Figure 17). These
facilities include 8 vertical tanks of varying sizes
for fuel and acid storage and 11 horizontal tanks
to store liquid petroleum gas and other liquids.
On the north side of the turning basin is the
preparation plant for the coal mud; the receiving
hopper and screen tower (item 3, Figure 16)
can be observed near the north docking facilities.
West of this section of the coral preparation sys-
tem are the coral thickener and the pump station
(item 4, Figure 16) for the pipeline which carries
the coral mud to the neutralization system in the
nickel plant. An airstrip measuring 3,810 by
100 feet is situated west of the port facility.
FACILITIES
petroleum gas (propane or butane) with steam.
These two plants are within the area of the sul-
phide precipitation plant (item 2, Figure 7), north
of a flare tower where excess gas is burned.
The sulphuric acid plant (item 3, Figure 7)
consists of two contact units, each rated at 650
tons per day. The plant operates on a standard
grade of dark sulphur and also utilizes the high
carbon-content blowdown from the hydrogen
sulphide plant. High-pressure steam is gener-
ated in the waste heat boilers as a byproduct of
the sulphuric acid plant. When the Moa Bay
complex is in balanced operation, over 50 per-
cent of the high-pressure steam needed for
agitation and heating in the leaching system can
be generated in the acid plant.
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25X1 D
I NICKEL AND COBALT SULPHIDE PRODUCT TANKS
Z LOADING DOCKS
3 CORAL PLANT - REC-LIVING HOPPER AND SCREEN TOWER
4 CORAL THICKENER AND PUMP STATION
5 LIQUIFIED PETROLEUM GAS STORAGE TANKS 45' X 10-
* POL STORAGE TANKS _ DIAMETER ANE 55' DIAMETER
7 LIQUID STORAGE TANKS
Road
Pipeline
Revetment
439A000300280087-7
FIGURE 16. PORT FACILITY, MOA BAY NICKEL COMPLEX.
SECRET
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REFERENCES
1. Carlson, E. T., and Simons, C. S. " Acid Leaching Moa Bay's Nickel," Journal of Metals, Mar 60, pp 206-213
(UNCLASSIFIED)
2. " Freeport Nickel's Mon Bay Puts Cuba Among Ranking Ni-Producing Nations," Engineering and Mining Journal,
Dec 59, pp 64-92 (UNCLASSIFIED)
3. Curran, J. Albert. " Titanium's Breakthrough at Freeport," Engineering and Mining Journal, Dec 59, pp 93-95
(UNCLASSIFIED)
4. Lee, James A. " New Nickel Process on Steam," Chemical Engineering, 7 Sep 59, pp 145-152 (UNCLASSIFIED)
11