Equipment for solid-liquid separation is an essential part of our mining plant.
Traditional solutions such as gravity thickeners, settling ponds and filter presses are often associated with high costs, poor efficiency and/or environmental issues.
Is there any new technology plant operators are using for the solid-liquid separation?
How do you optimize this process?
Please share your ideas and any innovations in the field.
I have experience in utilising vibrating membrane technology for liquid/solid separation. It has successfully been used to recycle waste oil with a viscosity of 70-80 cSt at 40 deg and is typically used in applications with slurries of up to 50% liquid 50% solid.
There are other alternatives including activated filter media if the solid % is lower.
One addition to the conversation regarding process optimization is Water Planet's IntelliFlux® automated process control system. IntelliFlux software can be applied to any filtration equipment that requires periodic flux maintenance via backwashing, cleaning or regeneration and will optimize the cleaning protocol to minimize OPEX and improve overall water recovery.
IntelliFlux is especially helpful in industrial applications, such as mining, with constant and rapidly changing influent characteristics. In your case, if you decided to integrate an MF or UF membrane system as others have suggested, IntelliFlux could operate the system more efficiently with less operator intervention.
Feel free to reach out direct if there is any interest – jason@waterplanet.com
Enclosed please find some information to a mobile unit what we use for the re-cultivation of lakes and lagoons in old mining regions. For a better solid-liquid separation this system can work with polyacrylamide (PAA) based flocculants as well as regenerative and biodegradable flocculants. For more information, please contact me directly.
Hello John: Please kindly visit www.baleen.com for introductory information. I am happy to introduce some specific case-examples for you - which type of ore beneficiation are you specifically targeting. My direct email is yuri@baleen.com Regards, Yuri Obst
hello John, I work with a Dansih company who produces and builds ceramic membrane systems, which have been succesfully applied in the mining industry, including for removal of heavy metals. Please contact me on jan@magnimark.com.br for further information.
What sort of volumes of process water are we talking about and solids content and SG etc.
Start possibly with Deep cone thickeners, that will return the vast majority of your process water back into the process ware its needed specifically if your mining in arid areas.
The paste can then be dewatered further, please steer away from tailings dams! These are a life time manageable environmental disaster, a legacy of the mines and corporate greed our children will need to clean up.
Personally again depending on volumes I would NOT use a centrifuge due to the High power High Polymer/chemical demand, plus the paste/sludge is usually very abrasive warranting expensive tiling.
If your carbon footprint conscious then try a Belt Press.
I wonder if you have tried the RVDF (Rotary Vacuum Dewatering Filteration process.It is not so much about water quality but the DS derived from process also up to 75%.The RVDF has been used in the mines for a while and proven very cost effective. This is realtime time process with no polymer used...
Hello John: Please kindly visit www.baleen.com for introductory information. I am happy to introduce some specific case-examples for you - which type of ore beneficiation are you specifically targeting. My direct email is yuri@baleen.com Regards, Yuri Obst
Screw Press could be a better economical solution and Chinese are also making good Screw Press.... which are cheaper in prices but reliable in operation.
There is a BACT [Best Available Control Technology] that already exists in the oil and gas sector for processing drilling muds that "might" have direct technology transfer applicability for mining as I know it has also been used in steel mills for slag recovery, it is a five panel vibratory screen with either wedgewire or perforated plates (for particle size separation) and the filtrate off the screens is pumped through Hydrocyclones that can remove particles down to "sugar sand" size. I have literature from that company that is at a trade show this week for the off-shore drilling trade show in Houston, but they have sent me pdf files that I do not know how to attach here. We are piloting this system for one of our textile mill clients to remove fine lint that bypasses their existing rotary screen HyCor systems. johns@venturi-aeration.com
The cyclone is a very effective separation device which can be enhanced by adding inexpensive fine wire mesh coalescing media to the tank. The media will help separate particles down to 5 microns. For more information please visit www.sweepclear.com
Expanding on the comment from Michael Martin below, the "drying bed" technology is also called subaerial tailings deposition or managed tailings deposition. It involves the rotational deposition of a thin lift (100mm to 150mm) of slurried (thickened) tailings (50% solids by weight) around a non-hydro-cycloned array of spigots feeding energy-robbing drop bars. Installations typically have a long beach and a very small supernatant pond. This technology is about 40 years old but the paste folks won't tell you about it. No filter presses, no centrifuges, no polymers, just Stokes Law. This proven technology isn't for every situation, but it's been used successfully from topical Fiji to Alaska and for a while, about 70% of the tailings produced in Nevada were deposited this way. Google "subaerial tailings deposition" to learn more.
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