Tag Archives: mine dewatering

Weir Minerals Pumped Up by new dewatering game for miners

Environmental, Mining equipment, Water management, , , , , , , , , ,

Weir Minerals says it has created a “fun and simple game” to educate its customers on the OEM’s dewatering capabilities.

Pumped Up! uses a variety of Weir Minerals dewatering equipment to move water around a fictional mine site, according to Ian Ross, Global Product Manager for Dewatering at Weir Minerals.

Each of the 10 levels present players with a different dewatering obstacle to overcome, from recycling, to flooding, to underground mines and long distance pump requirements. Levels increase in difficulty, and the number of points awarded is determined by how long each level takes to complete.

Products included as part of Weir Minerals’ dewatering solution in Pumped Up! include Warman®, Geho®, Floway®, and Multiflo® pumps as well as Isogate® and Delta® valves, and Linatex® hoses.

The game was released as part of Weir Minerals’ 2019 Take Control Of Your Water dewatering solutions campaign. Through articles, expert profiles, and case studies, the campaign demonstrates how Weir Minerals use its engineering and project management capabilities, together with a wide range of equipment, to deliver an optimised dewatering solution unique to every customer site, the company said.

Head to www.dewateringsolutions.weir to play the game.

Flowrox gets ‘Smart’ with new filter press

Environmental, Mining equipment, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , ,

Flowrox has strengthened its solid/liquid separation offering by introducing its new Smart Filter Press™.

Since acquiring Swedish filtration technology company NovaTek AB last year, Flowrox has now launched three new filters onto the market.

The Smart Filter Press (SFP) has various new and innovative features and reaches up to 10 times higher capacity compared with conventional recessed filter presses of the same size, it says.

Matti Luoma, Commercial Product Manager of Flowrox, said: “Being truly automatic and designed for safety, our SFP represents the next generation of filter presses. Thanks to its unique smart features and several error detecting functions, this filter can reach over 98% availability without any operator involvement. Its sophisticated process cycle minimises the consumption of the utilities and spare parts.”

Typical applications for the Flowrox SFP include solid/liquid separation in flue gas desulphurisation and different process water recycling uses in metal finishing, electrochemical machining, concrete recycling, industrial effluent treatment and municipal sludge dewatering, the company said.

Part of Flowrox philosophy is to offer lifelong user support. “We want to ensure best possible performance of our filters by providing full support at delivery, installation, start-up, operation and maintenance; service through the entire life cycle.”

Integrated Pump Rental up for southern Africa pit dewatering challenge

Environmental, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining services, Water management, , , , , , ,

As open-pit mines continue to get deeper with the maturing of operations, pit dewatering is becoming more vital, with ground water not only posing an operational challenge but also a potential safety hazard if not attended to appropriately.

In this scenario, it is not a case of one pump fits all dewatering application requirements and it is advisable to deal with a reputable pump supplier to ensure the most appropriate solution is selected, according to Integrated Pump Rental.

Lee Vine, Managing Director of the company, said each application requires a site-specific solution.

“There are numerous options available in terms of the actual pump and ancillary equipment, as well as the choice between rental and outright purchase,” he says. “The differentiator that our team offers is the ability to assess a given application and provide a pit dewatering solution with the correctly sized pump.”

There are several factors that can have an impact on the pump selection, and this includes available power sources; the volume of water to be pumped; and the condition of the dirty water, including size and type of particles in the water.

“What adds complexity to pit dewatering applications is that, in many cases, the need to dewater a pit can be urgent and customers are forced into making an incorrect pump selection or tying themselves into a contract that does not work in the longer term,” Vine says.

While the decision to hire or purchase is an important commercial one, so is the actual selection of the pump itself, he said.

“If the pump is not sized correctly for the dewatering application at hand, it will not perform as required. This, in turn, leads to further operational challenges including production losses and sometimes even the need to change the pump resulting in further costs.”

One of the most important factors to consider is the available energy source. If there is no access to power, options such as diesel-driven or pumps fitted with hydraulic power packs must be explored.

When selecting the pump, it is also important to understand the specifics of the water ingress conditions and whether this is a long-term issue or simply a short-term challenge. This scenario will dictate the pump size, its rated output and what ancillary equipment is required.

As an example, Vine points to a recent dewatering application on a mine in Lesotho where a constant flow of water into the mine’s pit area demanded that water be urgently and reliably pumped out.

Over time the pit depth had increased, and the groundwater level had been exacerbated by the winter snowfall in the highlands of the country. As a result, the total dynamic head for the duties of the installed dewatering pump installation changes and the mine required an urgent solution.

Initially a Sykes XH150 diesel driven pump was deployed, pumping at 120 l/s at 150 m head. Subsequent to this, a second Sykes pump was dispatched to site to ensure the level of water remained at an acceptable level.

With the two Sykes pumps on site, the mine was assured of enough pumping capacity, should the groundwater level increase.

The call from this mine came in and, within 24 hours, the first Sykes pump was installed on site, according to Vine.

“This is very significant, when one considers that the mine is situation some 500 km from the company’s front door and across the border into a neighbouring country.”

Integrated Pump Rental not only rents out Sykes diesel driven pump sets, the company is also responsible for the sale of these dewatering pumps across southern Africa. The robust units are designed for reliable performance, under even the harshest operating conditions, according to the company.

Tenova TAKRAF proves dry stack tailings credentials at Uzbekistan gold mine

Bulk handling, Environmental, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Precious metals, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , , , , ,

Tenova TAKRAF says it recently installed three DELKOR overhead filter presses at a gold mine’s processing plant in Uzbekistan as part of its wider tailings dewatering system.

The system comprises three DELKOR overhead filter presses each processing around 120 m3/h of gold tailings. Each machine contains 177 mixed membrane filter plates with a size of 2 m x 2 m, and includes a high-pressure cloth washing system.

These filter presses form an important part of Tenova TAKRAF’s complete Dry Stack Tailings (DST) technologies solution, which covers processes from sedimentation to filtration and material handling, the company said.

The supply also included several pieces of ancillary equipment, including belt conveyors for cakes discharged from the filter press (each machine is equipped with a cake breaker), pumping skids for membrane inflation, filter cake washing pumps and high-pressure cloth washing pumps.

“The entire scope of supply, including the slurry feed pumps, is fully controlled and managed by state-of-the-art software,” the company said.

It added: “The complexity of the dewatering process required by this project clearly highlights DELKOR’s filter press potential across the dewatering spectrum. In fact, the filter press cycle includes filter cake squeezing, filter cake washing and filter cake air blowing, with the filter cakes washed with process water in order to remove unwanted residual cyanides from the dewatered cakes.

“Importantly, the required residual moisture content within the dewatered cakes was achieved immediately during start-up.”

Marco Zeni, Tenova DELKOR Project Manager, said: “Notwithstanding demanding site conditions, installation and commissioning, together with the required operational training, was successfully completed. With this project, we take another important step towards firmly establishing DELKOR also as a provider of filter presses to round up the filtration product portfolio and once again demonstrating that: it pays to talk to a specialist.”

Test work proving up FLSmidth’s ‘game-changing’ Ecotails solution

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Testing by one of the world’s leading gold producers has confirmed FLSmidth’s Ecotails™ solution will be a game-changer for the mining sector, according to one of the company’s regional dewatering product line managers.

The solution, which combines filtered mine tailings with waste to form a GeoWaste, lowers water usage, rehabilitation costs and tailings footprints, according to the company.

Back in 2017, FLSmidth and Goldcorp signed an agreement to develop EcoTails, with the solution being studied for full-scale testing at Peñasquito, an operation with an average daily throughput of 130,000 t/d.

FLSmidth Regional Product Line Manager (Dewatering), Leonard Neluvhola, said the Ecotails solution is nearing the end of a lengthy testing process with the company, now called Newmont Goldcorp following a recent transaction.

“The success of its application to date confirms that Ecotails will be a game-changer for the mining sector,” Neluvhola said. “Not only can mines improve their environmental performance by applying this system, they will also see bottom line benefits too.”

He said the Ecotails solution involves dewatering and filtering tailings to a point where moisture content is just 10% to 25%.

“Up to 90% of the water in tailings can therefore be reused in the plant,” he said. “This is a vast improvement on pumping highly diluted slurry to a conventional tailings dam, where the water is lost to evaporation.”

The drier tailings are then mixed with the mine’s waste rock, after it has been sized and screened to be transportable by conveyor. “The resulting GeoWaste can be placed by a stacking system, as it is much more stable than wet tailings and can be stacked higher on a smaller footprint,” FLSmidth said. “This helps to address the serious concern mines have about the large footprints consumed by their tailings dams and waste rock dumps.”

In addition to its greater stability, GeoWaste is more conducive to vegetation growth, according to the company. “It is an ideal medium for concurrent environmental rehabilitation,” FLSmidth said. “The concurrent approach is becoming more popular, as it can mitigate the costs and risks of mine closure. Wet tailings can also present a greater danger of land contamination through leaching.”

Neluvhola said: “With our Ecotails experience and complete system offering, FLSmidth can provide a complete materials handling solution.” This includes crushers, sizers and screens, KREBS® pumps, thickeners and filters, conveyor and stacking systems, conducting tests and studies, system engineering and automation systems.

Neluvhola highlighted that FLSmidth in South Africa collaborates with customers on in-depth test work to ensure the application of Ecotails on their mines is fit for purpose.

“We can conduct testing at laboratory scale, and then advance to pilot stage when a mini-plant can be operated on site,” he said. “This allows us to test the technology using the customer’s own mined material in the thickening, filtering, conveying and blending phases to inform our technical designs.”

Marthinusen & Coutts expertise keeps Africa mine pumping

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Marthinusen & Coutts has come to the rescue of one of Africa’s wettest mines by rehabilitating medium voltage pump motors at the operation.

M&C’s Cleveland Engineering Services Division, a division of ACTOM (Pty) Ltd, recently teamed up with the Marthinusen & Coutts Kitwe facility, in Zambia, to carry out the work.

A pump original equipment manufacturer had approached M&C to assess several underground pump motors.

“There was an urgency to the situation due to the risk of flooding should there be any undue interruptions in pumping operations,” M&C, which calls itself the largest after-market service provider of electrical and mechanical rotating machines in Africa, said.

“Investigations revealed the motors driving the pumps were in a poor condition, with this severely affecting the availability and the performance of the pump chambers,” the company said. This required the initiation of a detailed refurbishment program, which involved the procurement of spare parts, the setting up of an on-site bearing store, and taking the lead in returning the motors to full service, according to M&C.

“Where possible, the motors were repaired in-situ – thus avoiding any possible crisis of underground flooding – while others were removed for full refurbishment,” the company said. “The highest level of engineering practices where followed during repairs, re-installation and commissioning.”

Ongoing support is also being provided, including the training of mine maintenance staff, the development of installation and commissioning specifications, conducting of regular site inspections, management of spares, and continual engagement with mine engineering management, according to the company.

Marthinusen & Coutts operates six state-of-the-art repair and manufacturing facilities – in Johannesburg, Benoni, Sasolburg, Rustenburg, Harare and Kitwe – and, supported by a network of technically equipped partners throughout Africa, provides services not only in Africa but globally.

Weir Minerals on optimising mine dewatering

Environmental, Mining consumables, Mining equipment, Mining services, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , , ,

As public scrutiny over the mining sector’s use of water continues to grow amid global shortages, Weir Minerals has issued its own guide on how to optimise the dewatering component of a mine site.

“Water is critical for every mine site, it’s used for minerals processing to dust suppression and slurry transport, and without it the entire operation would stop,” Weir said. “Every mine site faces a different challenge with water; it’s either scarce, or in excess and causing an issue.”

A comprehensive, reliable and flexible dewatering plan is essential to ensuring there is a steady supply of process water throughout the site, according to Weir. Conversely, the removal of excess water from working areas to allow excavation to continue while safeguarding the operators and maintaining productivity also requires a dewatering plan.

Ian Ross, Global Product Manager for Dewatering at Weir Minerals, said: “There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to dewatering. It can be an expensive and complex challenge, which is why we deliver bespoke strategies that are cost effective and manageable.

“At Weir Minerals our strength lies in our engineering and project management capabilities. We have the knowledge, expertise and range of equipment to optimise the entire dewatering component of a site.”

Major considerations for any dewatering project

Weather and environment

Each site’s dewatering requirements vary and present unique challenges, with environmental and geological considerations, as well as local climatic variations.

Differences in weather conditions and environmental changes can have a significant effect on an operation. The challenges operators face with water will change from region to region.

“From the outback of Australia where water is scarce, the recovery of water is desperately required compared to the tropical climates of Brazil, where open pits rapidly fill with water, or sub-zero (-50°C) arctic operations in northern Canada that operate year-round – they all require effective water management systems,” Weir said. “Every site, in every country, experiences varying issues with water management and requires a strong partner to support them, whatever the issue.”

Ross said: “We have extensive experience helping either open-pit or underground mine sites with their water management challenges. From designing and implementing a unified, fully-automated dewatering system in Czech Republic to delivering a dewatering system to withstand high wind speeds and tropical storms in Africa, we rarely meet a challenge we cannot overcome.”

There are also a number of factors affecting the dewatering system, from the permeability and porosity of the ground, the amount of surface water, and geological features such as seasonal rainfall.

All of these must all be assessed and factored into a detailed dewatering system before work can begin, Weir said. The dewatering system put in place must be able to cope with this to provide a safe solution and minimise production delays.

What’s in the water?

The composition of water being moved has a notable impact on the equipment and materials used, according to Weir. “The pH range, temperature, corrosive and abrasive content all play a critical role in selecting the equipment to transport water effectively. The presence of solids in the water, the specific gravity, size distribution and content percentage will determine the type of pumps required.”

Equally, the pipework and valves are also subject to corrosion and abrasion from the products handled and must be designed accordingly, the company said.

“For every dewatering project, it’s important the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) understands the environment before developing the strategy, to deliver the optimal solution,” Weir said.

“The pitfalls of over- or under-sized equipment include excessive energy use, high cost investment and maintenance and also risk to equipment and personnel, as well as lost production in the case of insufficient capacity.”

Cameron Murphy, Regional Director of Dewatering for Weir Minerals, said the company has a range of flexible solutions that allow it to use several types of pumping equipment, from self-primed diesel driven, submersibles, vertical turbine and multi-stage to high-wall pump designs for sites that have limited access due to high-sided mine pits.

“Our development of sophisticated pontoon and barge designs allows our equipment to float out over water bodies for easier access. All designs are rigorously tested and include safety features to help prevent risk to operators. Each of our pontoons is designed with a fully-tested anchoring system and can be customised for extreme weather conditions,” he said.

Waste not, want not

With depleting ore grades around the world, there is an emphasis on turning waste into energy, and the dewatering process is no different. Weir Minerals produces equipment which not only dewaters mine sites, but also enables the operator to recycle and re-use back through the plant, it said.

Weir said: “Reclaiming process water for reuse is an increasing demand from operators as it can help overcome the issue of water scarcity, and ensure the operation is gaining maximum use of its resources. Weir Minerals has successfully partnered with a number of customers around the world to make this happen.”

There are multiple ways in which Weir can help its customers reclaim water from their tailings and re-use it throughout the mine site, according to Ross. “From pump house systems to innovative and customised barge solutions, we find a solution that is right for the customer. These options can be complex, and we work with the customer to educate them on how the systems work and showcase the benefits, it’s a collaborative approach,” he said.

More than just equipment

“Operators usually rely on multiple OEMs for dewatering projects; a labour intensive task dealing with different providers and ensuring a solution comes together in a streamlined process,” Weir said.

“Weir Minerals can remove this headache by project managing the entire dewatering solution, utilising products from our extensive dewatering range. This involves a thorough assessment of the requirements of the site, including the mine plan, operating depths, and existing infrastructure, as well as required water in-flow.”

Ross concluded: “We provide a resilient process against the backdrop of increasingly difficult conditions in which many of our customers operate. What we deliver is an optimal dewatering plan, backed up by recommendation for regular equipment maintenance to keep unscheduled stoppages to a minimum.”