Tag Archives: wastewater

Gradiant’s process water solutions to be used at SLB, Rio Tinto operations

Gradiant, a global solutions provider and developer for advanced water and wastewater treatment, has announced partnerships with SLB (formerly Schlumberger), Rio Tinto and an Australia-based global mining company to, it says, improve productivity and sustainability in the mining industry with a focus on reducing carbon and water footprints.

The projects are in the US and Western Australia for resource recovery of critical minerals and industrial process water.

Gradiant’s collaborations with SLB and the Australia-based global mining company target the recovery of valuable metals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt. The mining of these materials is highly complex and water intensive. Moreover, with increased market demand and environmental regulations, businesses must identify cost-effective and sustainable technologies. Gradiant’s technologies enable sustainable, efficient and economical water governance through end-to-end customised solutions, it says.

Gradiant’s work with SLB integrates Gradiant’s technologies to concentrate lithium solution with SLB’s direct lithium extraction (DLE) and production technology process – allowing reduced time-to-market and environmental footprint for lithium extraction. The solution enhances the impact of the sustainable lithium extraction process by enabling high levels of lithium concentration in a fraction of the time required by conventional methods while reducing carbon emissions, energy consumption and capital costs compared with thermal-based methods, the company says.

Back in October, Gradiant and Schlumberger entered into a partnership to introduce a key sustainable technology into the production process for battery-grade lithium compounds.

For Rio Tinto, Gradiant will deliver a new facility in Western Australia to replace ageing facilities by employing the company’s proprietary RO Infinity membrane technologies and SmartOps Digital AI into existing mining operations. Gradiant has introduced two chemical-free technologies into operations to minimise chemical consumption and waste discharge, it said.

Lastly, Gradiant’s RO Infinity and SmartOps technologies will concentrate complex wastewater from nickel and cobalt production at a new facility in Western Australia for a global mining company, resulting in up to 75% cost savings with lower carbon and water footprints compared with conventional technologies, it says.

Prakash Govindan, COO of Gradiant, said: “Mining is a uniquely complex industrial sector with challenges of remote locations, large volumes of waste, wide fluctuations in water quality and the high-value end-product that demands relentless design and operations efficiencies. The real opportunity for water technology in the mining industry is resource recovery in wastewater coupled with machine learning AI. We are excited to work with the world’s leading mining operators to enter a new era of sustainable resource recovery. This is made possible by Gradiant’s deep understanding of the complex chemistry that underlies the production processes, which is then operationalised by machine learning digital technology.”

Clean TeQ DESALX plant up and running at Kirkland Lake’s Fosterville gold mine

Clean TeQ Holdings Limited has formally handed over a Continuous Ion Exchange Desalination (DESALX®) plant to Kirkland Lake Gold’s Fosterville gold mine in Victoria, Australia.

Clean TeQ says it was engaged to design, supply and commission a two million litre-per-day Clean TeQ DESALX mine water treatment plant, with the plant designed to deliver a sustainable water management solution by treating mine process water.

The plant construction was completed in late 2019, with commissioning and operations commencing in early 2020. Now, Clean TeQ has confirmed the plant has passed the performance tests specified in the engineering, procurement and construction contract and the customer has issued a formal notice of acceptance and completion, it said.

Sam Riggall, Clean TeQ CEO, said: “After successfully demonstrating the world’s first ever commercial scale CIF plant in Oman late last year, this is yet another moment of great significance for Clean TeQ.

“Confirmation of the successful deployment of our innovative DESALX solution for this application, designed and delivered by Clean TeQ, is strong validation of our proprietary continuous ion exchange technology, and provides us with a firm foothold in the mining waste water treatment market from which we can continue to grow the business.”

The DESALX technology consists of two continuous ionic filtration (CIF®) modules in series removing divalent cations and anions present in the water through complementary processes. The modules contain ion exchange resins that are cycled between columns using air lifts, allowing for continuous operation and regeneration of the system. This system increases impurity removal efficiency, reduces chemical use, and provides protection against fouling, according to Clean TeQ.

The DESALX solution is well suited to purification of difficult to treat waste waters with high hardness, sulphate, and heavy metals as well as suspended solids which can foul reverse osmosis membranes. These types of waste waters are common in the mining industry, including acid mine drainage water, the company explained.

At Fosterville, the equipment provided by Clean TeQ includes a precipitation package to remove antimony and arsenic. The effluent from the clarifiers is treated by the DESALX plant to remove sulphate, calcium and magnesium with gypsum as the only by-product. The DESALX effluent is then further treated by reverse osmosis to produce water for re-use.

“The Clean TeQ system is a key enabling component of the customer’s overall water management strategy which includes a medium-term target of creating a true ‘zero liquid discharge’ solution that does not produce any saline brine and includes aquifer reinjection,” Clean TeQ said.

Clean TeQ Water is now focused on completing one additional key project at a copper-cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a number of pilot programs in China.

“This Clean TeQ system, as well as the plants recently completed in Oman and Australia, are the first of their type anywhere in the world and have been deployed as part of three different technical solutions,” the company said. “The successful delivery and commissioning of these plants provides strong demonstration of the efficacy of Clean TeQ’s suite of proprietary ion exchange technologies and their versatility for metal extraction and wastewater treatment. As commercial scale plants, the facilities provide a valuable platform from which to now rapidly grow Clean TeQ Water.”

De.mem to put the BOOT in at Metro Mining’s Bauxite Hills mine

Water and wastewater treatment company, De.mem, says it has received new orders worth a minimum A$470,000 ($317,202) of revenue from Metro Mining for work at its Bauxite Hills mine in Queensland, Australia.

The orders include the delivery of wastewater treatment equipment, plus a contract award to supply equipment in combination with the provision of operations & maintenance services under a build, own, operate, transfer (BOOT) agreement.

Bauxite Hills, which produced 3.5 Mt (wet) of bauxite in 2019, is currently carrying out detailed engineering and design work related to a stage two expansion at the mine, which could see annual operating capacity reach 6 Mt (wet) by 2021.

De.mem CEO, Andreas Kroell, said: “We are pleased to provide our customers with a complete water treatment solutions offering, which includes the flexibility of either purchasing or leasing equipment from De.mem. Our build, own, operate/BOOT solutions are a key part of our services business, whereby we are engaged by leading players from mining and other industries under long-term agreements for the provision of water treatment equipment and ongoing operations and maintenance services.”

This is not the only Queensland bauxite mine De.mem is currently working on. Back in February 2019, the company secured a 12-month A$780,000 operations and maintenance contract to manage potable water and sewage treatment plants at Rio Tinto’s Amrun bauxite mine in the state.