Metso has been awarded an order for the delivery of sustainable tailings dewatering technology to an operating copper mine in Africa, with the total value of the order exceeding €20 million ($22 million).

Metso’s scope of delivery consists of the engineering and supply of a Planet Positive copper tailings dewatering plant unit including an HRT High Rate thickener and Larox® FFP3512 filters and auxiliaries with latest design hole-less filter cloths and single polymer plates lowering operating costs. The high-capacity Larox FFP3512 filters are the first of their kind to be installed in Africa, and feature, among other elements, superior anti-corrosive elements to tackle the highly corrosive tailings slurry, Metso notes.

The dewatering plant is part of a larger backfill project required for the continued development of the ongoing operations at site. The intention is to filter the existing concentrator tailings and use them as mine backfill when mining out the copper pillars.

Metso’s filtration product portfolio is one of the largest with the energy, emission and water efficiency in a league of its own, the OEM says. Metso has carried out over 14,000 filtration tests and delivered more than 5,000 filters for various applications worldwide.