Tag Archives: Spain

MATSA wins quick payback from Weir Cavex hydrocylone installation

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Weir Minerals says the introduction of a Cavex® hydrocyclone cluster at MATSA’s processing plant, in Spain, has delivered payback in just three days.

MATSA is a modern Spanish mining company based in the north of the Iberian Pyrite Belt, a mining district that has been active for more than 2,500 years. The company, owned 50:50 by Trafigura and Mubadala Investment Company, owns and operates three mines in the province of Huelva, Spain: Aguas Teñidas and Magdalena, located in Almonaster la Real, and the Sotiel mine, in Calañas.

The processing plant, in Almonaster, recently went through a €236 million ($266 million) expansion that saw capacity go from 2.2 Mt/y to 4.4-4.7 Mt/y through the addition of a second plant. The plant now has the capacity to treat copper and polymetallic ores through three grinding lines.

Weir Minerals says it has been working with MATSA to optimise its minerals treatment plant’s primary and secondary grinding circuits.

Seda Kahraman, Regional Process Engineer Manager for Weir Minerals, said: “We have been working with MATSA for 12 years and our service team has built a solid partnership with them. We opened a service site close to MATSA and employed a full-time Service Engineer on site to provide adequate support.

“Their success is our success, and working on this particular project was both very challenging and very rewarding. They needed to increase their grinding circuit capacity from 275 t/h to 307 t/h, whilst reducing the quantity of ultrafines in the final overflow of the second hydrocyclone cluster.”

Antonio Gamiz, MATSA Plant Technical Director, said: “To maximise our plant productivity we needed a Cavex hydrocyclone cluster that was specifically designed to our application. This was achieved without an extension of the plant area and with minimal capital expenditure.”

Weir Minerals took a holistic approach to this challenge by first creating a simulation of the entire primary and secondary grinding circuit. This enabled it to visualise how the process should be running, and the most appropriate way to deliver this.

Following the simulation, the best operating conditions were calculated to support the required capacity increase and elimination of slimes, Weir said. This included the ball mills, mill liners and hydrocyclones. Using 3D laser scanner technology, the team at Weir Minerals developed a suitable layout for the equipment, including modification and steel structures.

Kahraman said:“This truly was a turnkey solution; the team had to pull together all their smarts, capabilities and tools to ensure MATSA’s grinding capacity was raised, whilst simultaneously reducing the quantity of ultrafines from their overflow. We achieved this with a range of tools and techniques including engineer design, subcontract management, and manufacturing of steel.”

To deliver the solutions MATSA required, Weir Minerals replaced the primary hydrocyclone cluster, as well as the spare parts on the secondary hydrocyclone cluster; redesigned the steel structure and walkways; installed new hydrocyclone feed pumps and piping configurations, installing and commissioning the entire project, Weir said.

The modification to the steelwork and piping, as well as the assembly of the new three-way Cavex 650CVX hydrocyclone cluster were completed in less than four days without any production interruptions, according to Weir.

Upon analysing samples from various points in the grinding circuit, it was confirmed the feed capacity had successfully increased to 300-307 t/h.

Kahraman said: “In addition to the desired increase in grinding capacity, we also improved circulating load in the primary ball mill and restored the feed pressure to the Cavex hydrocyclones to 85 kPa. We are thrilled that MATSA achieved payback in just three days due to the increase in production by 500 t/d, and achieved additional revenue of €2,751/h.”

Open-pit mining to recommence at FQM Las Cruces copper operation

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The Andalusia Government has authorised the resumption of exploitation work at the Las Cruces copper mine in Gerena, Spain, following a pit wall slide that occurred back in January, the operating subsidiary, Cobre Las Cruces (CLC), says.

In an announcement translated from Spanish to English and dated July 12, the company said it was in a position to immediately restart mining operations in the open pit, after receiving the corresponding authorisation from the Ministry of Finance, Industry and Energy of the Junta de Andalucía.

Open-pit mining at Las Cruces, owned by First Quantum Minerals through its ownership in CLC, was temporarily suspended as a result of a landslide that occurred on the northern slope of the pit on January 23.

The stoppage of the open pit has previously led First Quantum Minerals to warn investors the operation could lose around 25,000 t of copper output in 2019, followed by a further 25,000 t in 2020.

Since open-pit mining stopped, the operation has been feeding the hydrometallurgical plant with stockpiled ore to keep up throughput.

The approval to restart activity at the mine follows the company enacting its recovery and insurance plan at the open-pit site. This has seen CLC rebuild and reinforce the pit wall, as well as employ a georadar and laser scanner to scan the slopes of the mine in real time. A seismograph has also been employed to detect possible vibrations in the terrain.

Open-pit mining will resume in the eastern area of the open pit, CLC said. This is where the last phase of mining (phase 6) of the current open-pit plan is due to take place before the deposit is exhausted.

Las Cruces produced 70,738 t of copper cathode in 2018, slightly behind the 73,664 t it posted in 2017.

W Resources reaches new processing milestone at La Parrilla tungsten-tin mine

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W Resources has fed the first ore through its newly commissioned jig and mill plant at its La Parrilla tungsten-tin mine in Spain.

The move follows construction completion in April and commissioning of the conveyors, pumps, thickener, two mills and two jigs over the past month, the company said.

The plant takes ore crushed to less than 10 mm and increases the grade to be fed to the concentrator plant while rejecting waste mass, according to the company. This is achieved with high tungsten and tin metal recoveries, W said.

The jigged mine feed will now be fed through the existing concentrator plant, while the new large scale concentrator plant advances to construction completion in June and commissioning in July, according to the company.

Michael Masterman, Chairman of W Resources, said: “Great progress has been made by the team which keeps us on-track to ramp-up to design production capacity of 200 t/mth by the end of 2019.

“At this stage of construction, it is important to clarify that commissioning a metallurgical plant is not a turn of a key process. In the jig and mill plant alone there are two jigs, two roll mills, a thickener, reject disposal system, 10 screens and feeders, nine conveyors, five pumps, and over 50 motors which need to be started, aligned and tied into an integrated control system. The team has done an outstanding job commissioning the plant and achieving first jigged concentrate.”

The crushing circuit at La Parrilla, supplied by Metso Minerals’ Portugal division, is made up of a C130 jaw crusher and secondary cone crusher, both with vibrating grizzlies prior to size reduction, and two tertiary cone crushers in closed circuit with a double deck banana screen.

With a throughput of 350 t/h, the two alljig® jigs, provided by allmineral, provide grading, enrichment and cleaning of the pre-ground ore at La Parrilla.

Europa mobilises diamond drill rig, service providers for Toral lead-zinc-silver exploration

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Europa Metals reports that a diamond drilling rig has been mobilised to its Toral lead-zinc-silver project in Leόn, northern Spain, as the London-listed company looks to commence a new exploration campaign in the next week.

The rig and associated operating crew is being supplied by Sondeos y Perforaciones Industriales de Bierzo SA and will be overseen by Europa’s on-site exploration team, the company said. The campaign will be conducted using a single drilling rig with assays sent for independent analysis on a rolling basis.

Addison Mining Services Limited (AMS) has been retained to carry out a revised independent resource update in accordance with JORC guidelines once the campaign has been concluded, Europa said, with Wardell Armstrong engaged to conduct the metallurgical test work from a representative sample taken from the drilling.

The core objectives of the drilling campaign are to drill into the high-grade core of the project, as defined within the existing inferred JORC resource (16 Mt at 7% zinc-equivalent); target high-grade areas within the defined resource to further the company’s understanding of the project – the aim being to increase confidence in the resource estimate and attain the indicated resource category – and; obtain a significant sample for the metallurgical test work to determine the potential zinc, lead and silver concentrate composition from Toral.

Laurence Read, Executive Director of Europa Metals, said: “Over the next two quarters, we are expecting to announce the results from the drilling, an updated JORC resource, and details of the likely product types that can be produced from Toral. Taken together, we believe that these key milestones will allow us to advance the processing design and commence discussions with potential offtakers.”

Blast off at W Resources’ La Parrilla tungsten mine

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W Resources says the first T2 blast at the La Parrilla tungsten mine in Spain shot successfully on April 30.

The blast covered a mainly barren zone to prepare access to the 10 m benches closer to the run of mine pad and crusher plant in the Fast Track Mine area, the company said. This explosion continued to open up directly accessible ore to the mine operation.

Ore mined to-date at the operation, which is envisaged as a scalable project, starting at 2 Mt/y to produce some 2,700 t/y of tungsten concentrate and 500 t/y of tin concentrate, before an expansion to 3.5 Mt/y and beyond, has been free-dig or from the early blast area, W said.

“The immediate priority at La Parrilla is to complete the commissioning of the jig and mill plant, which is underway in parallel with the completion of the large-scale concentrator plant,” the company said.

Michael Masterman, Chairman of W Resources, said: “The first T2 mine blast at La Parrilla is a significant event for W Resources and kicks-off the commencement of hard rock mining operations.

“The explosive blast was completed successfully with the highest level of safety and supervision. The ore will be mined at low cost using a truck and shovel operation and transported via the newly constructed ramp to the new 350 t/h crusher plant where it will be crushed and then fed to the newly constructed jig and mill plant as part of the commissioning process.”

The crushing circuit at La Parrilla, supplied by Metso Minerals’ Portugal division, is made up of a C130 jaw crusher and secondary cone crusher, both with vibrating grizzlies prior to size reduction, and two tertiary cone crushers in closed circuit with a double deck banana screen.

With a throughput of 350 t/h, the two alljig® jigs, provided by allmineral, are expected to provide grading, enrichment and cleaning of the pre-ground ore at La Parrilla.

RCT brings automation to MATSA underground operations in Spain

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RCT says it has finalised a major automation project at MATSA’s Aguas Teñidas and Magdalena mines in the Huelva province of Spain.

The project involved installing ControlMaster® Guidance Automation on four CAT R2900G underground LHDs and one Automation Centre Surface Control Station at MATSA’s Aguas Teñidas copper-lead-zinc mine.

MATSA is a jointly-owned company by Mubadala Investment Co and Trafigura. It owns and operates three mines in the Huelva, including Aguas Teñidas, Magdalena and Sotiel, on top of a 4.4 Mt/y copper and polymetallic processing plant.

RCT’s automation centre at Aguas Teñidas is fitted out with RCT’s Multiple Machine Control feature enabling a single operator to remotely control multiple machines at the same time via the mine’s digital communications network.

RCT also commissioned two Sandvik LH621 underground LHDs with ControlMaster Guidance Automation at the nearby Magdalena copper mine. These Sandvik LHDs can operate on a digital network via RCT’s Area Access Cabinets which act as an extension of the automation centre and interfaces between the work areas and the machines.

This instalment builds on a previous project to mount ControlMaster Teleremote and Guidance Automation solutions on three of the site’s CAT R2900G LHDs, which operated on an analogue network via two surface control stations, according to RCT.

Guidance Automation allows machines to tram between two predetermined points on a mine site with the push of a button by operators who also receive real-time information including machine speed, rpm, direction, pitch and roll, RCT said.

“The automation centre consists of an ergonomically designed operators chair facing up from screens, which feed real-time information from sensors and machine-mounted cameras to the operator,” the company added. Teleremote, meanwhile, enables the operator to remotely manage the machine from a control station in real time.

A MATSA spokesperson said: “This system not only allows us to operate in hazardous conditions safely from the surface, but also increases productivity by permitting us to operate during shift change and smoke clearing. We also have the capability to simultaneously operate more than one piece of equipment with the same teleremote operator.”

RCT Account Manager, Shane Smith, said the Guidance Automation products would provide solid benefits for MATSA. “ControlMaster Guidance Automation has a proven track record of improving operator safety in a traditionally hazardous working environment by removing them from the mine face,” he said.

“The faster tramming speeds will also help to boost site productivity on site and limit unplanned machine downtime due to repairs from machinery accidents while the new automation centre will reduce operator fatigue due to improved comfort and ease-of-access on the mine’s surface.”

Fairport and Saloro bring Barruecopardo tungsten mine closer to production

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Saloro is gearing up for first production at its Barruecopardo tungsten mine, in Spain, with plant equipment being run through its paces, Fairport Engineering has reported.

Fairport, which has been supporting the re-opening of the historic tungsten mine since 2014 in the plant design and engineering aspects, said the multi-stage crushing and screening plant was the first part of the flowsheet to be tested, with the main concentrator following closely behind. The mine’s steady-state output rate is 260,000 metric tonne units of tungsten oxide.

“The state-of-the-art production facility, that combines both modern day technology and traditional minerals processing systems, will treat a scheelite ore mined at site to produce a tungsten-rich concentrate that will account for around 13% of non-Chinese global supply of tungsten concentrates,” Fairport said.

The Barruecopardo mine has a history dating back almost 100 years. It is located in the Salamanca Province of western Spain, an area of substantial historic tungsten production. For the majority of its operating life, Barruecopardo was the largest tungsten mine in Spain, producing a high-quality tungsten concentrate from open-pit mining and related processing operations, according to Fairport. Activities ceased at the old mine in the early 1980s.

“Since Saloro’s inception, in 2004, it has diligently advanced studies, permitting and funding activities related to its project for the re-opening of the Barruecopardo mine,” Fairport said.

Fairport was awarded the Construction Management Contract for Barruecopardo last year.

First Quantum Minerals reports land slippage at Cobre Las Cruces copper mine

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First Quantum Minerals reports that during the early morning hours of January 23, a land slippage occurred on the slope of the northern zone of the open-pit mine in the Cobre Las Cruces mining hydrometallurgical complex, in Gerena, Spain.

The company clarified that the slippage did not cause harm to any persons nor any impact on any third-party facilities or land.

First Quantum said: “The company has immediately activated the established safety and environmental emergency procedures, evacuating the area and isolating the incident. Furthermore, the relevant administrations have been informed without delay, and the company is in constant communication with them.”

At the present time, production in the CLC hydrometallurgical plant has been temporarily suspended while investigations are being conducted, the company said.

“The company is monitoring the situation continuously and is taking all the necessary measures to resolve the incident and will provide updates as appropriate.”

The CLC operation produced 70,738 t of copper cathode in 2018, slightly behind the 73,664 t produced in 2017.

The operation uses conventional open-pit mining, based on hydraulic shovels and trucks, with drilling and blasting in the lower marls and ore zones. The project has a relatively high stripping ratio supported by the high-grade ore, according to First Quantum, and uses contract miners for all mine production.

The CLC metallurgical plant relies on an atmospheric leaching process to recover copper from the rich Las Cruces chalcocite ore. A unique feature of the plant is the use of eight OKTOP agitated reactors to dissolve the copper under conditions of high temperature and high acidity. Oxygen is also added into the reactors to complete the reaction. The feed to the leaching reactors is mined ore that has passed through three stages of crushing and a single stage of grinding.

Once leached, the liquid is separated from the ground solids to become PLS, the feed for the solvent extraction (SX) area. In the SX area, the copper is passed to an organic solution and then to the electrolyte that feeds the electrowinning cells. The electrowinning cells produce LME-grade copper cathodes.

W Resources crushing ore at La Parrilla tungsten-tin mine

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Just over a week since confirming mechanical completion of the La Parrilla crusher plant, W Resources has fed the first mined ore into the circuit at its tungsten-tin operation in western Spain.

Michael Masterman, Chairman of W Resources, said: “First ore into new crusher was achieved on December 18, 2018, ahead of the January 2019 target and is a great credit to the team at La Parrilla.”

The crushing circuit at La Parrilla, supplied by Metso Minerals’ Portugal division, has been engineered to minimise creation of tungsten fines and is designed to process 350 t/h of ore, according to the mining company. It is made up of a C130 jaw crusher and secondary cone crusher, both with vibrating grizzlies prior to size reduction, and two tertiary cone crushers in closed circuit with a double deck banana screen.

La Parrilla is envisaged as a scalable project, starting up at 2 Mt/y to produce some 2,700 t/y of tungsten concentrate and 500 t/y of tin concentrate, before an expansion to 3.5 Mt/y and beyond.