9 grades
Synthetic paraffinic fluids built from natural gas, for mining solvent extraction, drilling and specialty formulation.
That single difference in how the molecules are made is what buyers are paying for when they specify a GTL fluid over a crude-derived equivalent.
Natural gas is converted to synthesis gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
The synthesis gas is rebuilt over a catalyst into longer-chain liquid hydrocarbons. The chemistry dates from the 1920s and carries its inventors' names.
The synthetic stream is cut into individual fluids and solvents. The result is normal and lightly branched iso-paraffins, with very little of the aromatics, sulphur, nitrogen and metals that crude fractions carry.
Lower worker exposure risk, high flash points at low viscosity, and the same composition batch after batch. Ask for the safety data sheet before you assume an environmental profile: it varies by grade.
The G series. Synthetic paraffinic fluids that run from a wide-cut general process fluid up to a high flash point carrier, plus the synthetic drilling fluid base.
Wide-cut synthetic paraffinic fluid. The lowest flash point and widest distillation range of the G grades.
Mining solvent and diluent. Narrow-cut synthetic paraffinic fluid combining a high flash point with the lowest viscosity of the G grades, which is why it is the one specified into copper solvent extraction.
Wide-cut synthetic paraffinic fluid sitting between G70 and G100 on flash point.
The highest flash point fluid in the G series, for duties that need one without giving up a low-aromatic paraffinic carrier.
Synthetic drilling fluid base. Used as the non-aqueous continuous phase in invert emulsion muds. Classified as a synthetic base fluid because it is made by reacting a purified feedstock rather than by refining crude.
Narrower fractions cut from the same synthetic stream, plus the linear paraffin grade. Carbon range rises across the series, so flash point and viscosity rise with it and volatility falls.
Synthetic paraffinic solvent in the C15 to C19 range. High flash point and very low volatility, with sulphur, olefins and aromatics at or below detection.
The heaviest fraction we carry, in the C18 to C24 range. Highest flash point and viscosity of the series, and the highest paraffin content.
Wider boiling range synthetic paraffinic solvent in the C11 to C16 range. Built for constant quality, very low odour and a high flash point alongside balanced volatility, low viscosity and very low sooting.
Clear, colourless, odourless liquid of straight-chain normal paraffins in the C10 to C13 range. Being Fischer-Tropsch derived is what separates it from normal paraffins recovered from kerosene by molecular sieve.
In copper solvent extraction the organic phase is an oxime extractant dissolved in a hydrocarbon diluent, and the diluent is roughly two thirds of the organic inventory by volume. It therefore governs the physical behaviour of the circuit: how fast the phases separate, how much organic is lost to entrainment and evaporation, how much crud forms, and what the fire and exposure risk looks like.
Copperbelt circuits are unusual. The leach solutions carry far more copper than heap leach operations elsewhere, so they run higher extractant concentrations and put heavier demands on the diluent.
The base oil is the continuous external phase of an invert emulsion mud. It carries weighting agents and cuttings, survives downhole temperature and pressure, holds the emulsion stable, and has to sit inside the discharge and exposure limits that apply where the well is drilled.
We publish no properties for these grades on this page. Every figure that governs a process belongs on the sales specification and the batch certificate for the material you are receiving.
