Tag Archives: mining pumps

Babylon expands mine water management activities with RWG acquisition

Environmental, Mining equipment, Mining mergers and acquisitions, Mining services, Water management, , , , , ,

Babylon Pump and Power says it has executed a business asset acquisition agreement to acquire the operational assets of Resource Water Group (RWG) for A$3 million ($2.1 million) in a transaction that it hopes will result in more early-stage project engagement with mining companies.

Established in 2011 and based in Canning Vale, Western Australia, RWG provides bore field test pumping equipment and related data collection services as well as a range of water management disciplines to the mining industry. These services are critical to water users across the resources sector as they develop water management strategies in line with their environmental obligations and operational requirements, it says.

Back in June prior to the announced acquisition, Babylon said it was planning on expanding its mine water management activities.

Under the business acquisition agreement, Babylon will acquire the operational assets (independently valued at over A$2 million), goodwill, contracts and intellectual property of RWG. RWG’s founder, Frank Ashe, has entered a services contract and will become a member of the group’s senior executive. Three other RWG employees will also commence employment with Babylon.

Babylon Managing Director, Michael Shelby, said: “This is an exciting and well-priced acquisition for Babylon which will significantly expand our water management activities. The acquisition broadens our offering to new and existing clients, brings in additional technology and business development capability whilst complementing our existing business.

“RWG’s test pumping services are considered an early-stage project engagement service and have consequently led to relationships with a range of well recognised global and Australian mining companies including BHP, Rio Tinto, FMG, Roy Hill and Newcrest Mining. We expect that these relationships will also facilitate rental opportunities for our specialist pump rental assets, supporting the Company’s renewed strategic focus on multi-disciplined water management equipment and services.”

Babylon will move into new, purpose-built premises around November of this year and RWG will co-locate its assets and operations into the new facility.

RWG’s Ashe said: “This is an exciting time to be joining forces with Babylon as it builds into a diversified water services business. I am looking forward to joining the team and contributing to strategic growth initiatives and capitalising on RWG’s network of relationships.”

Watson-Marlow breaks ground on new US facility

Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, Water management, , ,

Watson-Marlow has announced the ground breaking of its new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Devens, Massachusetts, in the US.

A celebration ceremony was held on November 18 at the new facility, which will be dedicated to Watson-Marlow’s range of industry leading products, including peristaltic pumps, tubing, fluid path solutions and BioPure components.

The Devens 14,000 sq.m facility will be close to the life sciences hub in the Cambridge/Boston area, with the site incorporating a suite of eight ISO14644-1 Class 7 cleanrooms, warehousing and offices, with space for two further cleanrooms within the initial footprint.

With segregated cleanroom and non-cleanroom production capabilities, Watson-Marlow’s new facility will strengthen the support the company provides to customers in the region across its core sectors of pharmaceutical and biotechnology, medical diagnostics and process industries, the company said.

“The new US facility is an important milestone in the Watson-Marlow company history and marks a significant commitment to serving our customers in the Americas region,” Andrew Mines, Watson-Marlow Managing Director, said. “This exciting development is bringing us closer to our customers whose purpose is to help the world around us, from advancing cell and gene therapies through to ensuring people have access to clean drinking water. Together we will continue to develop market-leading fluid management solutions to engineer a more sustainable future.”

Production at the new facility will replicate that of Watson-Marlow’s European sites, ensuring continued product quality for customers, by using the same raw materials, components, processes and work instructions. Completion of the facility is due in late 2022, with the first products due to be shipped from the site late in the December quarter.

PumpEng brings new patented submersible pump to US mining market

Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Water management, , ,

PumpEng introduced new patented submersible pump technology at the recent MINExpo 2021 event in Las Vegas, with the pump already breaking records at mine sites in Australia, the company says.

The introduction of the all-metal JetGuard to the US mining industry follows a slew of mine site deployments.

Jet Guard has several unique features that protect the internal pump parts from shotcrete fibres in wastewater, according to the company, with test sites reporting fewer breakdowns, lower repair costs and longer service life.

“The JetGuard pump is breaking records at Australian mine sites with maintenance managers reporting improvement over lost time between failures up 400%,” the company said. “For underground production crews, longer pump life frees up maintenance staff for other work and improves safety by reducing maintenance events.”

The most important element is the reduction in production delay caused by pump failures, according to the company.

JetGuard is available for the US market in 480 V, 15 horsepower (11.2 kW) with 30 hp coming soon, PumpEng said.

ALROSA looks to ABEL HM pumps for filter press feeding

Diamond mining, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining services, Water management, , , , , , , , ,

Piston diaphragm pumps from ABEL are helping Russia’s ALROSA with its filtration process at one of its diamond mines in the country.

In Spring 2021, ABEL received an order for the delivery of six of these piston diaphragm pumps, HM pumps, following an initial HM pump order in 2020. This inaugural pump was delivered to ALROSA in February 2020 as replacement for a centrifugal pump previously used for filter press feeding. At the beginning of August, the ABEL pump was commissioned at the diamond producer’s plant. The dewatering result (higher solids content, shorter filtration time) was so convincing that ALROSA decided to feed all filter presses in this plant with the pumps, ABEL said.

The latest delivery is being facilitated by ABEL’s official distributor in Russia, SibComplectService.

ABEL’s HM pumps are available as single- or double-acting versions. They come with a high flow rate, reliable function and particularly low operating and maintenance costs, the company says.

In addition to filter press feeding, the hydraulic diaphragm pumps are also used for sludge transport, spray dryer feeding, rotary kiln feeding, autoclave feeding, and sealing/rinsing water supply, among other applications.

Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group releases Bredel heavy-duty hose pumps

Comminution of minerals, Environmental, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, Water management, , ,

Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group (WMFTG) has released a new peristaltic design of Bredel hose pumps that, the company says, can handle viscous slurries, grit-filled sludge corrosive acids and other challenging materials.

These qualities of the Bredel heavy-duty hose pumps make them ideal for the most demanding mining applications, according to the company.

“Unlike diaphragm, rotary lobe, and PC pumps, the peristaltic design of Bredel hose pumps contains no moving parts that come into contact with the product, and no seals, ball-checks, diaphragms, glands, immersed rotors, stators or pistons to leak, clog, corrode or replace,” it said. “Bredel hose pumps also obviate the need for ancillary equipment such as dry run protection, seal water flush systems and in-line check valves. A simple hose change takes only minutes and can be performed in-situ without special tools or skilled personnel.”

The low maintenance peristaltic design offers a low total cost of ownership, WMFTG claims. As the fluid is safely contained within the hose or tube, operation and maintenance personnel and the environment are protected from unwanted spillages or exposure to chemicals.

Bredel hose pumps are dry-running and self-priming, and allow no slippage, for true positive displacement to provide accurate and repeatable metering, the company says. Only Bredel industrial hose pumps provide this level of engineering expertise for their drives, according to WMFTG.

The pumped fluid is completely contained in a long-life hose, protecting operation and maintenance personnel and the environment from unwanted spillages or exposure to chemicals. Flow is entirely independent of suction and discharge conditions.

Every Bredel hose is precision machined to ensure flow stability and pump performance in tough fluid handling applications, the company added.

These industrial pumps achieve flow rates up to 475 gallons per minute (1,798 litres/min), transferring up to 80% solids in suspension.

Tronox boosts mineral sands dredging process with help of IPR-supplied SlurrySucker

Comminution of minerals, Industrial minerals, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining safety, Mining services, Water management, , , , , , , , ,

Following a successful one-week trial, heavy minerals company Tronox Mineral Sands has taken delivery of a SlurrySucker dredging unit from Integrated Pump Rental.

The SlurrySucker will remove sand from the process dams near the Tronox mining operation on South Africa’s West Coast. This installation enhances the safety and efficiency of the dredging process, which previously had to be carried out manually by a team of underwater divers, IPR said.

“The pumping capacity of the dredging unit will ensure optimal operation of Tronox’s dams which need to be kept at the required storage volumes at all times,” Ruaan Venter, Rental Development Manager at Integrated Pump Rental, said.

The dredging unit will assist Tronox in regularly cleaning sediment from its process dams, reducing the risk of pump blockage or failure. This solution aims to provide rapid results on a cost-effective basis, while the remote operation raises safety levels, the company added.

To withstand the corrosive effects of salt water, the SlurrySucker has been equipped with a stainless steel casing as well as stainless steel components including wear plates and impellers. The units were manufactured at Integrated Pump Rental’s facility in Jet Park, Johannesburg, South Africa.

The SlurrySucker dredging unit comprises a floating barge with an electric hoist operated from the side of the dam. This ensures a high level of safety with the barge being operated remotely, including the lifting and lowering of the pump. At Tronox, the SlurrySucker is designed to pump 150 cu.m/h of sediment – with a solids content of 50% – back to the thickener in the plant.

“The electrically-driven unit also makes sure that there is no risk of contaminating the water in the dams with diesel or oil leakage,” Venter says. The compact unit is easy to transport between the dams requiring dredging, making for optimal usage of the equipment.

With its local manufacturing capability and technical support offering, Integrated Pump Rental says it is well equipped to maintain the SlurrySucker out of its Johannesburg facility.

Harte Gold goes with the Watson-Marlow flow at Sugar Zone

Comminution of minerals, Equipment maintenance, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Precious metals, Water management, , , , , , , , , , ,

Harte Gold’s wholly-owned Sugar Zone Mine in Ontario, Canada, is now benefiting from the adoption of Qdos and APEX peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group (WMFTG).

Having deployed the pumps in two important applications, the Sugar Zone team are now enjoying far better flow rate efficiency, along with significant reductions in both maintenance requirements and downtime, according to WMFTG, with the miner subsequently looking to invest further in the company’s pumping technology.

The Sugar Zone Mine entered commercial production in 2019 and has an anticipated operating life of around 13 years at current output levels. Producing 60,000-65,000 oz/y of gold at a 800 t/d throughput rate, a mine expansion study is currently in progress to support a 1,200 t/d rate.

In the reagents room, Harte Gold operates eight diaphragm pumps on a 24/7 basis. However, issues over insufficient process efficiency, the amount of maintenance time needed to replace diaphragms and the potential for leaks prompted the company to look at alternative solutions.

Harte Gold invited WMFTG to trial its Qdos 30 chemical metering pump. For a period of one month, the mining company compared the Qdos with an existing electric diaphragm pump dosing flotation reagents such as potassium amyl xanthate (PAX).

With a flow rate for PAX of 100-300 ml/min, the Qdos 30 significantly outperformed the diaphragm pump on flow rate efficiency, according to WMFTG. Although the dosage rates were adjusted as required before and during the trial, the Qdos outputs were noticeably more consistent in comparison with the existing pump, bringing potential for process optimisation.

ReNu peristaltic pump head technology is at the core of the Qdos pump and is key to its success at Harte Gold, WMFTG says. ReNu ensures accurate and repeatable chemical dosing and, thanks to its contained design with integral leak detection, reduces wastage and eliminates any potential for operator exposure to chemicals.

In addition, Harte Gold personnel confirmed both operations and maintenance were trouble-free during the trial runs. Indeed, there were favourable reports of the colour TFT display, which shows both flow and speed, while the maintenance team was in full support of the single, no tools ReNu pump head replacement.

Such was the success of the trial that Harte Gold is now looking to gradually phase-out all eight of its existing diaphragm pumps in the reagents room over the coming few months. Although control of the first Qdos 30 on site is manual, the company will adopt 4-20 mA I/O moving forward, according to WMFTG. Harte Gold is also planning to replace diaphragm pumps with Qdos models on the water treatment side of its business.

In another area of its operations, Harte Gold has replaced an existing peristaltic pump (not Watson-Marlow) with an APEX 35 in a 24/7 application. Here, the pump transfers thickened gravity concentrate from a gold decanting tank to a shaker table. However, the company found itself replacing hoses every week in its existing peristaltic pump.

The company already had an APEX 35 in operation so thought the same model would provide a good solution for the thickened gravity concentrate. Instead of the one week hose life previously achieved, the APEX 35 with NR hose lasted for 12 weeks, reducing both maintenance and downtime in this critical application. Now, only four hoses are required per year, rather than 52, equating to a 1,200%-plus gain in maintenance intervals, the company said.

ABEL pumped up by IndustriTech partnership in Australia

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

ABEL has announced a distribution partnership with IndustriTech Pty Ltd for the Australia mining market.

IndustriTech provides service-oriented solutions in three areas: technical advice, reliability and repair services and distribution services. Together with ABEL’s wide range of positive displacement pumps, it will provide complete customised product and service solutions for high solids concentrations and efficient dewatering processes. Typical applications are dewatering, tailings, solid transfer and thickener underflow.

For over 70 years, ABEL has specialised in pumps for filter press feeding and filter cloth cleaning. Both ABEL’s piston diaphragm and high-pressure plunger pump provide tailor-made features to ensure a short, efficient and energy saving filter press process for the customer, according to the company. This performance can be seen in the high level of dryness of the filter cake, resulting in increased daily metal extraction and profitability for the customer.

Weir Minerals expands mobile dewatering offering with new Multiflo LF pump

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

Weir Minerals has launched its new mobile Multiflo® LF pump range featuring trailer and skid-mounted pumps specifically designed to handle liquids ranging from water, to sewage and sludge.

The launch follows successful installations across North and South America, South Africa, and Kazakhstan.

With the new range, Weir Minerals offers robust and high performing mobile dewatering pump packages suitable for sites with variable conditions, including applications where liquids may contain high percentages of solids to be transported or acidic conditions with low pH values, it said.

“Not only versatile and highly mobile, the Multiflo LF is engineered for efficiency with a proven, enclosed impeller design and leading-edge materials that dramatically reduce total cost of ownership,” Weir added.

The Multiflo LF pump is available in different configurations to meet the varied demands of dewatering applications around the world. It can be supplied with a portable trailer, or as skid-mounted packages with diesel engines (T3 & T4F rated engine emissions) or electric motor drive options.

“No matter the configuration, the Multiflo LF pump range provides a dependable pumping solution with flow rates ranging from 100 cu.m/h to 3,200 cu.m/h and discharge heads of 10 m to 210 m,” Weir said.

Ian Ross, Global Product Manager for Dewatering Solutions at Weir Minerals, said: “The new Multiflo LF range features a selection of dewatering pump package that, compared to similar pumps on the market, reduce total cost of ownership through lower energy requirements.”

The pump features a hydraulically superior enclosed impeller design and larger diameter pump shafts that allow the Multiflo LF to efficiently handle large solids while reducing operational and maintenance costs, according to the company.  This is achieved through the advanced, high efficiency pump-end that requires less energy to process fluids, operating under reduced power requirements, and, in turn, consuming less fuel or electricity.

The enclosed impeller is further supported by a stout bearing frame and large diameter shaft that is less prone to deflection during cavitation, Weir says.

“The Multiflo LF pump range is more forgiving than similar pumps on the market, and the design is proven to result in fewer seal failures and far fewer instances of shaft breakage in extreme conditions,” the company added.

Ross continued: “With this range, we deliver a complete dewatering pump package, with compressed delivery times, that can withstand almost anything, including misapplication due to improper pump selection. With the high-head Multiflo LF pumps, the double pump volute equalises internal pressure to eliminate radial thrust, which helps prevent both seals failure and shaft breakage.”

The Multiflo LF comes with heavy-duty wear-resistant materials of construction that include cast steel and cast CD4MCu stainless steel for enhanced abrasion and corrosion resistance, Weir says. Casting the pumps from steel creates a more robust pump and additionally promotes extended wear life with the possibility of weld repairing the casing should a problem develop, according to the company.

Ross concluded: “Weir Minerals prioritises partnering with our customers. We’re right there on site from the beginning, from specification to delivery, installation, commissioning, training, and maintenance. We know the Multiflo LF performs, and we take the time to make sure it’s performing to our customers’ requirements.”

Metso Outotec to divest Vereeniging mill linings, pump facility

Comminution of minerals, Equipment maintenance, Mineral processing, Mining consumables, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining services, , , , ,

Close to eight months since Metso announced it was evaluating the potential closure or other alternatives for its operations in Vereeniging, South Africa, Metso Outotec has made the decision to divest the fabrication, machining and assembly facility and close or rearrange the rest of the operations.

Back in March, Metso said the evaluation was part of the company’s global supply footprint development strategy within its Minerals operations.

Sami Takaluoma (pictured), President, Consumables business area at Metso Outotec, said the company carefully evaluated all opportunities, with the target to find the best possible option for customers and employees.

“Approximately 110 employees will continue with the new local owner in the spare parts manufacturing and repair operations,” he said.

“To ensure the best value, availability and quality to our customers, the mill linings production, as well as pump assembly operations, will be transferred to our other manufacturing units with flexible global service capability,” Takaluoma said. “We will continue to have some field service and engineering specialists in Vereeniging to ensure a sustainable transition as well as uninterrupted service to our customers.”

The unit in Vereeniging has provided pumps, spare parts, consumables, and repair services for the mining industry. The unit has employed around 200 employees.

Metso Outotec added: “The decisions made on the Vereeniging site operations are not related to the Metso Outotec combination.”