FLSmidth says it has expanded its conveyor testing capabilities. Due to increasing demand for small scale testing on conveyor transport of mine waste, FLS has installed a new test unit at its lab in Votorantim, Brazil. This test unit is used to determine the change in surcharge angle of a material over conveyed distances as well as determining the maximum slope that material can be conveyed.

These data-driven tests provide results that can be used to design conveyor systems for dewatered and co-mingled tailings. This unit, along with the first unit based in Salt Lake City, Utah, are available for both lab-scale testing and pilot rental.

FLS offers complete dewatering, material handling and co-mingling solutions, in-house. It also provides all the required comprehensive testing to ensure it can supply the most economic tailings solution to each customer on a site-by-site basis.

The geotechnical properties of the stacked tailings will drive to what degree the tailings must be filtered. The material handling system, conveyors and stackers, must be designed to match the quality of the filter cake produced.

The main FLS co-mingling solution, named EcoTails™, was first developed in cooperation with Goldcorp (now part of Newmont) and has also been looked at in South America for copper operations. EcoTails blends “fast filtered” tailings with waste rock in transit and creates a geotechnically stable product called GeoWaste™. When blended properly, GeoWaste is easy to convey and has a high strength when stacked. Another co-mingling option is mixing paste tailings with waste rock – referred to by FLS as EcoPaste™.