To counter depressed world nickel prices, a continuing effort is being made at Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter to reduce unit production costs._x000D_
One major area in which production costs can be reduced is the substitution of coal for fuel oil._x000D_
Two areas where this has been achieved to bring about a saving are, the addition of coal to flash furnace flux to reduce supplementary fuel oil requirements in flash smelting and the replacement of two oil-fired air preheaters with a coal-fired unit. These actions have resulted in coal replacing 67% of the current fuel oil requirement in flash smelting at the Kalgoorlie .Lckel Smelter.