- Reduce cleaning and maintenance of surface settling dams
- Increase mud management capacity thereby reducing safety and environmental risks associated with dam choking
- Have consistent quality dam water overflow to mine service water reticulation system
- Improve efficiency of PGM recovery in the beneficiation plant
Integrated Fines Recovery System at an SA PGM Project
The Brief
We helped the customer in these three ways:
We provided a customised integrated fines recovery solution to manage underground settler underflow mud to a dry state ready for processing in the metal recovery plant, where the metal yield from the recovered fines was improved.
We decreased the required maintenance of the surface clear water dams, as a result, a decreased fines loading into the dams.
We improved the mine’s water conservation through improved re-use of the service water.
The Client
The client is a leading international precious metals mining company, with a diverse portfolio of platinum group metal (PGM) operations in the United States and Southern Africa, gold operations and projects in South Africa, and copper, gold and PGM exploration properties in North and South America.
The Work
We developed a unique process engineered solution. Positive
displacement pumps are utilised to transfer the underground settler underflow mud to Watercare Innovation’s High-rate Clarifier on surface, at an average feed SG of1.08kg/L.
The mud is treated with the optimum dosage of settling aids applied from the Watercare Innovations automated flocculant dosing plant. The average SG of the underflow mud from the
High-rate Clarifier is 1.20kg/L.
The mud is suitable at this SG to pump directly to the filter press located immediately above the conveyor belt that transfers run-of-mine ore to the beneficiation plant.
The mud cakes extruded from the filter press have a moisture content between 25% – 30% (w/w), consistently dry for improved metal processing efficiency.
The high-rate settler overflow water has a suspended solids content of 10 – 40mg/L and is returned to the mine service water reticulation system or the surface settling dams.
The Result
- The beneficiation plant receives an average of 14 presses/day of mud that is consistently lower than 30 % (w/w) in moisture. The suspended solids loading to the mud dams has reduced from an estimated 7 200kg/day to 8kg/day.
- The dams should not need to be cleaned of mud in more than a year, yielding significant savings on dam cleaning costs for the mine.
- The designed dam capacities have been restored, improving regulatory compliance and reducing safety and environmental risks. The water quality of the Erickson dams has significantly improved resulting in consistently acceptable water quality returning to the mine for re-use.
- The chemical treatment cost of the cleaner Erickson dams has been reduced with an associated cost saving for the mine.
