CiDRA Minerals Processing has successfully installed the largest SONARtrac system in Peru which is the largest flowmeter in Peruvian mining. The 1,219 mm meter was installed on a reclaimed water line at Southern Copper’s Cuajone mine in the southern-most Andes Mountains of Peru. The large diameter of the pipe had prevented a flowmeter from previously being fitted. Water resources in this area are scarce and highly regulated, and having an accurate flow measurement on this critical reclaimed water line will allow Cuajone better water balance accounting.

The system is required to measure water flow in one of the plant’s principal feed lines. With this installation, Cuajone becomes the fifth company in South America to choose SONARtrac technology for their large diameter water feed lines, mainly due to the growing need to monitor flow rates and thereby improve the water balance, in compliance with internal company regulations.

The recovered water comes from Cuajone’s four thickeners and flows to a reservoir near the concentrator plant. The water is then distributed for reuse in the concentrator plant through the water feed lines to mills and flotation. Six pumps work alternately, depending on the amount of water recovered, to feed the lines in accordance with process demands. The fundamental characteristic of being a non-intrusive system allowed the installation of the 1219 mm flowmeter without having to stop the process or cut the pipe, which would have been required to install conventional flowmeter technologies.