Osmoflo says it “treats more water used in mining than any other company in Australia. [Its] plants provide process and drinking water from raw water of wide ranging quality and salinity. Osmoflo has a long established track record in providing and supporting the right equipment that guarantees reliability of water supplies for drinking and process requirements. PlantConnect®, Osmoflo’s proprietary plant control and monitoring system linked to [its] 24-hour manned Operations Control Centre, helps ensure efficient performance regardless of location.”
Applications include:
- Desalinated drinking and general use water
- High purity water for processing ore and minerals
- Water for gas turbine operation
- Treatment of mine drainage water for release back into natural water catchments.
Just one example of an Osmoflo Australian project was when Bemax Resources (now Cristal Mining) was developing a new high grade mineral sands deposit 10 km from its existing Ginkgo mine. Bore water, the only source in the locality, has a salinity content of about half that of seawater, making it unsuitable for site requirements without treatment. As Snapper became operational, Ginkgo gradually wound down and an Osmoflo desalination plant there provided under a Build Own Operate contract, was transferred to the new mine. The challenge facing Bemax was how to meet water requirements at Snapper during construction and until the desalination plant at Ginkgo was transferred over, a period of around 18 months.
Osmoflo recommended that a sewater reverse osmosis plant mounted in a 20′ container and readily available from the company’s rental fleet be adapted to meet specific conditions at the Snapper site. Feed water with a TDS content of more than18,000 mg/l is pre-treated in a containerised multimedia filtration (MMF)system designed to ‘plug and play’. MMF vessels are backwashed individually, a feature that enables the SWRO plant to run continuously. The treated water, which contains less than 500 TDS mg/l was suitable for general purpose needs. The client’s requirement was 220,000 litres/d of RO product water, however the plant can be ramped up to 250,000 litres/d if required. Brine produced in the desalination process is blended back into bore water for industrial use. Monitoring of plant performance was undertaken by Osmoflo technical engineers and timed to coincide with servicing regimes at the Ginkgo plant.
The rental solution was a cost effective option to supply water during the development phase of the mine’s life cycle. Close liaison between Bemax and Osmoflo staff ensured the arrival and commissioning was in line with construction requirements.
Osmoflo works widely outside Australia and recently supplied a rental solution to Antofagasta’s Antucoya project. By the end of August 2013, the full 1,500 m3/day of equipment (UF/SWRO) had been installed, commissioned and handed over to Osmoflo SPA for ongoing operation and maintenance.
