Capital Equipment News January 2022

The FLSmidth REFLUX flotation cell.

Multotec filter press recovers maximum water and produce dewatered product suitable for economical conveying to the next step or discard the waste economically.

flowsheet to address the three key areas of MissionZero – water waste, energy waste and emissions. The company is developing Reflux flotation technologies, both for fast flotation and coarse flotation, to minimise water requirements and footprint. For coarse flotation, FLSmidth’s CoarseAir, will provide efficient metallurgical recovery at a larger size than conventional flotation can achieve. A deposit that can benefit from this technology would require less comminution energy, as well as lower the OPEX and CAPEX of tailings solutions, by allowing a coarser grind size. FLSmidth continues to offer dry comminution technology such as the HPGR that can eliminate water addition upfront. Kwatani’s Mayhew-Ridgers says although screening plays a minor role in the management of water in a plant, Kwatani’s view is that the ideal solution lies in reducing the amount of reject material processed by water. “This can be achieved by eliminating the reject material in the upstream processes. For this reason, Kwatani is closely associated with world leaders in ore sorting technology because we believe this will definitely form part of the future mining improvement solutions,” he says. In conclusion, Multotec’s De Villiers says there is already more pressure from authorities for mines to use less water and ensure used water is treated instead of stored in tailings dams, and he sees this trend strengthening. “We also believe that the majority of water treatment projects in the future will be driven by SHE departments and not by operations as was typically the case in the past,” concludes De Villiers. b

Kwatani applied its new innovative approach to the banana screen designs for a diamond mine in South Africa.

Villiers says one example is a chrome mine in Limpopo which was faced with various risks in disposing its tailings, and called Multotec for a solution. The mine management was keen to conserve scarce water resources by avoiding evaporation and was also concerned about potential groundwater contamination. “After intensive investigation, which included testing at our Spartan facility in Johannesburg, we recommended our filter press technology. This proved to be highly- successful and the filter press was able to immediately recover about 80% of the clean water in the slurry,” says De Villiers. Apart from chrome tailings, Multotec’s filter presses have been used effectively in copper sulphide, copper oxide, coal, gold sludge, scrubber effluent and water treatment sludge applications. The company’s range of equipment and depth of

technical expertise allows turnkey solutions, which include the various items of auxiliary equipment around the filter press. The future Commenting on some of the trends in wet processing, FLSmidth’s Douglas says the sustainability conversation in the mining industry has matured. It has moved from a general acknowledgment that mining must become more sustainable to a point where the industry recognises that it is now a prerequisite for doing business. “Sustainable practices are increasingly non-negotiable in order to secure investment, meet society’s evolving expectations, gain a social licence to operate and to ultimately ensure shareholder value,” he says. FLSmidth is focused on all areas of the

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