and injects coal into the vessel srv via the lances 7 b the capacity of each of the four coal supply means 15 is selected so that only three of the coal supply means 15 are required to supply required amounts of coal to the vessel srv under standard operating conditions of the hismelt process accordingly any one of the supply means 15 or the supply lines 17 or the lances 7 b may be out of service at any time without affecting standard operation of the hismelt process the solids feed means also supplies separate streams of dolomite and waste oxides to the lances 7 that inject coal into the vessel srv the flux feed means generally identified by the numeral 25 includes a storage hopper 27 and supply means generally identified by the numeral 29 that supplies separate streams of dolomite under pressure into two of the coal supply lines 17 the capacity of each of the two flux feed means 25 is selected so that only one of the coal supply means 15 is needed to supply at least substantially the required amount of dolomite to the vessel srv under standard operating conditions of the hismelt process the waste oxides feed means generally identified by the numeral 45 includes a storage hopper 47 and supply means generally.