Tag Archives: Adam Matthews

Watson-Marlow pumps perform at Cornish Lithium Shallow Geothermal Test Site

Five 500 series cased peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions are playing an important role in a demonstration plant at Cornish Lithium’s Shallow Geothermal Test Site in the UK.

Originally built to test the concept of extracting lithium from geothermal waters, Cornish Lithium is now working on an upgraded version of the test plant as its drilling program expands, ultimately with the aim of developing an efficient, sustainable and cost-effective lithium extraction supply chain.

The initial enquiry for pumps came from GeoCubed, a joint venture between Cornish Lithium and Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL). GEL owns a deep borehole site at United Downs in Cornwall where plans are in place to commission a £4 million ($5.2 million) pilot plant.

“GeoCubed’s process engineers helped us to design and commission the test plant ahead of the G7, which would run on shallow geothermal waters extracted from Cornish Lithium’s own research boreholes,” Dr Rebecca Paisley, Exploration Geochemist at Cornish Lithium, said.

Adam Matthews, Exploration Geologist at Cornish Lithium, added: “Our shallow site centres on a borehole that we drilled in 2019. A special borehole pump [not Watson-Marlow] extracts the geothermal water [mildly saline, lithium-enriched water] and feeds into the demonstration processing plant.”

The five Watson-Marlow 530SN/R2 pumps serve two different parts of the test plant, the first of which extracts lithium from the waters by pumping the brine from a container up through a column containing a large number of beads.

“The beads have an active ingredient on their surface that is selective for lithium,” Paisley explained. “As water is pumped through the column, lithium ions attach to the beads. With the lithium separated, we use two Watson-Marlow 530s to pump an acidic solution in various concentrations through the column. The acid serves to remove lithium from the beads, which we then transfer to a separate container.

“The pumps are peristaltic, so nothing but the tube comes into contact with the acid solution.”

She added: “We’re using the remaining 530 series pumps to help understand what other by-products we can make from the water. For instance, we can reuse the water for secondary processes in industry and agriculture. For this reason, we have two other columns working in unison to strip all other elements from the water as we pump it through.”

According to Matthews, flow rate was among the primary reasons for selecting Watson-Marlow pumps.

“The column needed a flow rate of 1-2 litres per minute to fit with our test scale, so the 530 pumps were ideal,” he says. “The other consideration was choosing between manual or automated pumps. At the time, because it was bench scale, we went for manual, as we knew it would be easy to make adjustments while we were still experimenting with process parameters. However, any future commercial lithium extraction system would of course take advantage of full automation.

Paisley added: “The great thing about having these five pumps is that we can use them to help evaluate other technologies moving forward. Lithium extraction from the type of waters we find in Cornwall is not undertaken anywhere else in the world on any scale – the water chemistry here is unique.

“It is really important for us to undertake on-site test work with a variety of different companies and technologies. We want to devise the most environmentally responsible solution using the optimum lithium recovery method, at the lowest possible operating cost. Using local companies is part of our strategy, particularly as continuity of supply is vital.”

To help fulfil the requirements of the next test plant, Cornish Lithium has enquired after more 530SN/R2 pumps from Watson-Marlow.

“We’ve also requested a quote for a Qdos 120 dosing pump from Watson-Marlow, so we can add a certain amount of acid into the system and achieve pH balance,” Matthews says. “We’ll be doing more drilling in the coming 12 months, which will allow us to test our technology on multiple sites.”

The Mining Association of Canada updates tailings management guidance

The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) has announced updates to its guidance on responsible tailings management that, the association says, aligns its policies with the ‘Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management’ published last year.

The Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) standard, first developed by MAC in 2004, is a globally recognised sustainability program that supports mining companies in managing key environmental and social risks. TSM was the first mining sustainability standard in the world to require site-level assessments and is mandatory for all companies that are members of implementing associations.

Through TSM, eight critical aspects of social and environmental performance are evaluated, independently validated, and publicly reported against 30 distinct performance indicators.

As part of this, MAC has also come up with its ‘Tailings Management Protocol’ and supporting guidance documents.

“TSM provides an established system for credible performance measurement and reporting, including rigorous standards to help ensure that tailings facilities are being responsibly managed,” MAC said. “Effective tailings management is rightly being prioritised more than ever to ensure that stakeholders, communities surrounding mine sites, investors and the general public can have confidence in how mining operations are being run.”

Pierre Gratton, MAC’s President & CEO, said the publication of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management last year provided a good opportunity to review TSM’s requirements, with a view to incorporating aspects of it that would further enhance the safe management of tailings facilities around the world.

“What we found was broad alignment in most critical aspects, plus some opportunities to further strengthen our guidance and TSM requirements,” he said. “We also found that, in many respects, TSM is more detailed and rigorous than the standard and is a surer guarantee of the safe management of tailings facilities.”

In efforts to ensure continued best practices and world leading tailings management expertise, MAC has updated ‘A Guide to the Management of Tailings Facilities’ to improve alignment with requirements of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management. These updates, the first step in a process of further strengthening TSM requirements and guidance for tailings management, are based on a detailed comparison of the equivalency of TSM requirements to those of the standard, MAC said. To further align with the standard, MAC is also expanding the application of the TSM Tailings Management Protocol to closed and inactive sites.

With these changes, TSM will, MAC says, meet or exceed most of the requirements in the standard and will continue to:

  1. Provide more detailed and rigorous performance measurement expectations. For example, the standard has three high-level requirements related to developing and implementing an operation, maintenance and surveillance (OMS) manual for tailings facilities, whereas TSM identifies more than 120 items that must be addressed to be in conformance with the TSM requirement to develop and implement an OMS manual;
  2. Take a more comprehensive approach to identifying and addressing human and community rights and benefits; and
  3. Have an established and independent verification process with almost two decades of experience measuring, assuring and publicly reporting site level performance.

Adam Matthews, Chief Responsible Investment Officer, Church of England Pensions Board, who repesented the Principles for Responsible Investment that helped developed the standard, said: “We welcome the Mining Association of Canada’s intent to incorporate the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management into the TSM framework. We hope and expect the mining industry as a whole to adopt the standard, and support improvements that will lead to the safer management of waste.”

TSM does not fully address elements of the standard related to the planning, design, and initial construction of new tailings facilities. In addition to guidance in the MAC Tailings Guide, MAC members also rely upon the Canadian Dam Association safety guidelines and tailings dam bulletins.

Gratton concluded: “With the growth and expansion of TSM internationally, including its adoption most recently by the Minerals Council of Australia, we now have a robust system for ensuring the promotion and implementation of best practices in tailings management the world over.”