PASTE & TAILINGS 2020
ABEL’s mine backfill solution
Pump manufacturer provides example of how its piston
diaphragm pumps can improve backfill slurry quality
ABEL HMQ piston diaphragm pumps
offer a solution for very challenging
conditions
Background
Our client is a mining company involved in
mineral exploration and exploitation. The
mineral extracted is treated in a polymetallic
processing plant, which operates 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year.
Mining is carried out by excavating primary
and secondary stopes, which are subsequently
backfilled with a slurry made of residues
originating from the mineral treatment process.
This results in a modern, highly efficient and
environmentally friendly process.
The product
The process of metal extraction is accompanied
by the accumulation of large quantities of
tailings, sometimes used for refilling stopes no
longer in use.
Due to increasing environmental awareness,
the handling of tailings from mining processes
has become a crucial issue for every mining
company nowadays. Even though they are a byproduct
of the mineral concentration process,
tailings do not have any real economic value.
Thickening the tailings and adding cement to
the mixture allows a high solid content backfill
slurry to be obtained. The high resilience of the
mixture significantly reduces both the
environmental footprint and the risk of
environmental damage.
For an optimal backfilling of the mine with
slurry, it is necessary to prepare a high quality,
high solids content and resilient slurry without
compromising its fluidity in the entire discharge
pipework.
The application
Despite our client’s extensive experience in
preparing backfill slurry, the process constitutes
a new challenge, given that in previous mining
operations, backfilling has always benefitted
from the effect of
gravity.
The application
requires the pump to
convey a larger backfill
cone so 100% of the
mine can be backfilled
and offer maximum
operating safety.
This is where the
ABEL piston
diaphragm pumps
come into play as the
solution for the
handling of cemented
backfill in the mine. In contrast to other
conventional technologies for slurry backfill,
these pumps are operated at a very lower cost –
lower than the pumps our client was previously
using.
The solution
When it comes to working under the
requirements of mining applications, the
equipment installed must guarantee a high
degree of reliability and availability, and must
also be suitable for
challenging conditions,
operating during long
periods without
interruption.
ABEL HMQ piston
diaphragm pumps
represent the solution
for very challenging
work conditions.
The introduction of
the diaphragm as a
means of separation
between the slurry and
the drive side of the
pump allows the
maintenance intervals
to be significantly
increased compared
with those of
equipment in direct
contact with the
cement.
Main
characteristics
ABEL HMQ
performance: up to 275
cu.m/h and up to 16
MPa.
Advantages
n Transfer of solids, pumping of fluids with
solid content concentrations > 75% in terms
of weight;
n Pre-formed diaphragm: separation between
slurry and drive;
n Extra-large suction valves with a high degree
of volumetric efficiency;
n Yield stress > 200 Pa;
n Strokes per minute are low and ensure a low
mechanical wear;
n Individual, customised case-by-case design
and dimensioning.
Thanks to these properties and design, the
pumping equipment offers a long, useful
lifetime and satisfies the particular
requirements and needs of the backfilling
application.
Put simply, the process can’t stop.
Therefore, ABEL closely cooperates with its
clients and engineers on designing and defining
a specific pump for the specific backfilling
application by adapting its structural design to
the specificities of a high density and high
cement containing slurry.
The use of pulsation dampers allows a
continuous, gentle and low pulsation discharge
of the slurry into the excavated stopes and
entirely eliminates the risks linked to possible
problems in the most critical component of the
backfilling process: the pipework.
IM
SEPTEMBER 2020 Supplement | International Mining P1