Rapid sediment build-up in acid ponds can have dire results for mines as the reservoirs gradually lose their ability to store solution, impacting on both upstream and downstream processes. This is exactly what happened at a copper mine in the DRC when two of its acid ponds silted up completely resulting in no solution capacity whatsoever. Previous attempts at solving the issue were not successful due to the abrasive nature of the silt and solution that needed to be removed from the ponds.

Lee Vine, Managing Director of Integrated Pump Rental, says that the company’s Slurry Blaster hydro mining equipment solution was deemed the most appropriate solution for this harsh application.

This locally developed and manufactured equipment offers optimum performance coupled with reliability, and this, according to Vine, was exactly what was required to hydro mine the slime out of the ponds.

“Not all applications are the same and for this reason, and after assessing the specific requirements on site, we custom built a SlurryBlaster unit for this particular task,” Vine says.

All stainless steel components including pumps were used for the pontoon mounted SlurryBlaster. The system comprises a 90 kW feed pump with float, two 30 kW slurry pumps for the removal of the slurry, a 200 m heavy duty hose and electric control panels for protection for the pumps .

The two acid ponds are identical; each 100 m by 50 m and 6 m deep. The unit operated at a 7 bar pressure and discharged material at 80 litres/s with a concentration by volume of 70%. It took a month to clean each dam.