CANADIAN TECHNOLOGY
kg of sample provided. A standard lab flotation
test is normally carried out in parallel to the pilot.
This provides a very good comparison of
efficiencies and metallurgical benefits of the SFR
versus standard lab tests. Using well known
scale-up procedures from lab results to tank and
column cells, the same comparison can be made
at full scale.
When used in a recognised testing facility, this
pilot plant is ideal for roughing and scavenging. It
can be used for cleaning as well if enough
sample can be obtained from the rougher tests.
When used at an operating site, the sample is
unlimited and any stream can be tested.
Advances in microbial technologies in the past
five years have revolutionised the understanding
of how microbes affect mining processes, and
improved accessibility of testing. Microbes are
now known to impact a wide range of mining
activities, including heap-leaching, bioreactors,
acid rock drainage, and passive water treatment.
Sepro Mineral Systems has built and delivered
three separate 3.6 m x 10 m tyre drive
agglomeration drums recently. Sepro technical
service representatives are currently overseeing
the installation and commissioning phases of the
three machines in their respective locations of
Indonesia, Mexico and Peru. This size
agglomeration drum is currently the largest size
offered by Sepro.
The new Sepro tyre drive agglomeration drums
incorporate standard off the shelf major
components, however, where requested,
customised features were added to support client
specific requirements. Two of three
agglomeration units feature a newly developed
Sepro manufactured liner that is offered as a
more affordable option to traditional alternatives.
Previously used in Sepro-supplied Falcon gravity
concentrators, the liner material has
demonstrated longer lasting wear resistance,
reduced downtime and opportunities for all
round cost savings.
In addition, the drums incorporate multiple
angle settings to adjust the slope of the drum.
This feature allows the end user to have
flexibility when monitoring the required speed
and tonnage by adjusting the drum to a
shallower or steeper slope as needed. Finally, in
one particular case, a client had requested a
redesigned discharge chute to work with its
conveyor system. The Sepro team was able to
identify a unique solution that met the client’s
requirements without compromising the
performance of the machine which will work with
the existing conveyor system.
Installation and commissioning of all three
Sepro tyre drive agglomeration drums is
expected to be completed with support from the
Sepro Technical Service and Automation teams
by mid-2017.
44 International Mining | APRIL 2017
Left: multiple angle settings allow the drum to be adjusted between 2.5° and 7.5° Middle:
customised discharge chute Right: Improved liner in process of being installed
These agglomeration drums are specifically
designed to prepare feeds with a high fines
content at gold and base metal heap leaching
operations. The action in the agglomeration
drum, combined with small additions of cement
and lime, binds the fines into an agglomerated
product.
#DisruptMining finalist Bio-Mine Ltd uses a
bio-intelligent, augmenting consortium of
organisms designed specifically for ‘targeted’
metal recovery and remediation. This game
changing environmental technology is
programmable to specific mineralogy in many
different environmental conditions. The company
notes that “today’s bio-technology consists of
bacteria families such as Acidobacillus,
Leptosperillium...etc and others that we call the
‘First Generation Biotechnology.’ We call them
First Generation because of their static nature,
and limitations in the field. These known bacteria
being used today, are extremely volatile. If you
don't take great care in keeping them in an
environment exactly as they are accustomed,
they wi ll fail or even worse, die. This means
careful and expensive monitoring and
adjustments of temperature, pH, O 2 and CO 2
levels. Any deviations from perfection in these
variables, and the technology will fail, and thus
only a very few projects using this First
Generation biotechnology are mildly successful.”
Many years ago, Chief Scientist and Partner in
Bio-Mine, Dr Vasu Appanna, discovered a very
strange organism deep down in barren old mine
tailings in northern Ontario. It was flourishing in
a tough, cold climate, with no oxygen so he
brought it back to his lab for analysis. It turned
out he had discovered an evolution in industrial
biotechnology... ‘a programmable organism’. This
eukaryote had learned to survive in this
environment, and adapted to what was present in
the tailings.
For the next 15 years he began to learn to
control this organism; to see it augment its
metabolism as it was introduced to different
environments. It was exactly what Appanna
needed to complete this next generation
technology. In order to be really effective in
mining, it takes a consortium of organisms
working together in harmony to accomplish the
processes in due time.
Appanna knew that in order to compete in the
mining recovery business, the next generation
bio-technology would have to be a lot more
robust and flexible than the First Generation
Bacteria, increasing the power and recoveries.
This bio-technology needed to be controllable,
and programmable. Bio-Mine discovered this
organism contained multiple bio-markers giving
Bio-Mine uses a bio-intelligent, augmenting consortium of organisms designed specifically for
‘targeted’ metal recovery and remediation