Outotec has launched a new real-time water monitoring tool to enable miners to simulate and evaluate proposed water-treatment investments and process changes, and keep tabs on water use across their operations.
As the company says, water is a scarce and valuable resource, and mining operations are under increasing pressure to optimise their water usage in order to improve environmental and economic performance.
Outotec Pretium Water Advisor enables real-time monitoring of the water balance across an entire site, allowing operators to create short-term forecasts for water volume and quality, it said.
The platform predicts changes in water balance and quality based on changing production and environmental conditions. This enables simulation and evaluation of proposed water-treatment investments and process changes.
“The solution combines intelligent water measurement stations and instrumentation with Outotec’s predictive water balance computing to eliminate the need to rely on time-consuming manual water-balance and key performance indicator (KPI) calculations,” Outotec said.
Plant managers and engineers can view water KPIs as both graphical views and historical trends via a web-based interface and also access scenario management tools for performing simulations and evaluating the impacts of new water treatment investments, process changes, or the impact of expansion plans on the site’s water resources, the company said.
“Water Advisor monitoring stations provide accurate and reliable real-time data on both environmental and process waters, and are designed to perform reliably in harsh environments even under constant exposure to rain, humidity, dust, frost, and sun,” the company said. “Stations can be easily connected to the Outotec technical platform for data collection, processing, visualisation, and device management.”
Outotec Pretium Water Advisor has been commercialised with the help of funding from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, a body of the European Union, under Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.