MINE WATER MANAGEMENT
mine waters and conducting autopsies on reverse osmosis membranes from companies such as Barrick and Newmont has given us the insights we needed to formulate three specific development products ready for industrial testing.”
Genesys is now beginning to trial the newly formulated products in situ. It has recently sent out consignments to several mines around the world for testing. It is also now looking to connect with more mining operations that are already using membrane separation technology to treat water, to help them with their specific challenges while increasing Genesys’ s own understanding of mine water chemistry.
Environmental awards
Last year PROXA completed the successful commissioning and performance testing of the mine water treatment plant at Exxaro’ s North Block Complex Glisa mine, situated close to Belfast in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Operational since February 2017, PROXA says“ the plant is a prime example of its commitment to extracting value from mine surface water.”
Project manager from Exxaro, Tertius Kruger, explains more:“ Exxaro required a sustainable zero liquid discharge solution to manage the surface mine water volumes and salt balance after mine closure for ongoing protection of the
environment at our Glisa site. What’ s more, the recovered water needed to meet potable standards for supply to the local community or to river discharge standards.”
PROXA’ s solution was to use non-thermal zero liquid discharge technology that the company developed and commercialised in 2012. Elie Sakhat, PROXA CEO, expands:“ Known as the CASCADE process, PROXA is able to use this innovative technology to recover multivalent byproduct salts and potable product water for reuse. In the case of Glisa mine, the combined efforts of Exxaro and PROXA resulted in a treatment plant reaching zero waste production”.
The CASCADE process utilises a number of key innovations by PROXA, more notably an advanced chemical reactor and proprietary point-to-point process control systems to enable reliable and robust system performance in challenging mine water applications. The CASCADE has been applied successfully for other mining majors such
In addition to the design, construction and commissioning of the water treatment plant at Glisa, PROXA’ s responsibility at the coal mine includes the full operations, maintenance and technical support – providing a fully outsourced solution to the client
as Anglo American and Glencore, and the experience at Glisa confirms the robust and reliable nature of the technology.
Sakhat continues:“ This new approach offers a number of benefits to the client, including optimum capital and operating costs. Most importantly, the ability of PROXA’ s portfolio of technologies such as CASCADE, PRAEMIUM and GLACIER now removes the long-term legacy of brine ponds traditionally associated with mine water treatment.”
Kruger confirms that,“ The product delivered at Glisa is of a very high and professional standard. Start-up of the plant was smooth and reached maximum capacity within a period of
Genesys International products used in mines in China, Peru, Chile, USA, Canada and Australia.
Keeping RO membranes clean
Speciality RO / NF membrane chemicals
● Membrane Antiscalants
● High sulphate treatment
● Microbubble RO membrane cleaning system
● Membrane Autopsy Services
For more information on call + 44( 0) 1606 837605 or visit www. genesysro. com