PUMPS AND PIPELINES
1,000 cu . m / h at 10 bar , or 700 cu . m / h at 16 bar for deeper open-pit mines like those found in the Nordic region .
The new factory , with over 20 new employees and its own in-house engineering team , is able to design , manufacture and ship over 30 pumpsets a month , making it one of the largest manufacturers of Stage V pumpsets in the UK with a specific focus on the minerals markets , the company says .
Simon Ruffles , Managing Director and owner of DXB Pump & Power , said : “ When we started this pump company five years ago in a shed on a farm , we had no idea that there was such a demand for Stage V equipment , but the high price of fuels and energy has meant that there has been a real shift in companies ’ demand for more fuel-efficient pumps and equipment . “ The ESG pressure by shareholders , particularly in Europe , focused on reducing the carbon and environmental footprints of mining companies has meant companies like DXB Pump have had the opportunity to design and offer far more fuel-efficient Stage 5 solutions , which , combined with high-efficiency pumpends from Cornell , means we can offer far smaller powered pumpsets using much less fuel that are able to do the same job as older pumpsets designed two decades ago .”
An example of this is the DXB-designed DE250 / 160 pumpset , which is capable of almost 300 cu . m / h at around 16 bar or 160 m , powered by only a modern Stage 5 7.8 litre engine with around 225 kW . When compared with a historically popular Stage 3 Cat C15 375 kW engine focused on the same application , the DE250 / 160 can save almost 100 litres of fuel and 30 kg of carbon a day without any performance reductions , according to DXB Pump .
Ruffles concluded : “ This ability to reduce
DXB Pump & Power ’ s new factory , with over 20 new employees and its own in-house engineering team , can design , manufacture and ship over 30 pumpsets a month
engine sizes , power and fuel burn has come about because of modern designed engines and pumps that now offer wire-to-water efficiency at some of the highest levels seen in recent years , reducing customers ’ fuel costs and carbon output , with increasing profits for the mines and quarries .”
Brine pumping
Still in the UK , five 500 series cased peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions recently made their way to a demonstration plant at Cornish Lithium ’ s Shallow Geothermal Test Site in Cornwall .
Originally built to test the concept of extracting lithium from geothermal waters , Cornish Lithium is now working on an upgraded version of the test plant as its drilling program expands , ultimately with the aim of developing an efficient , sustainable and cost-effective lithium extraction supply chain .
The initial enquiry for pumps came from GeoCubed , a joint venture between Cornish Lithium and Geothermal Engineering Ltd ( GEL ). GEL owns a deep borehole site at United Downs in Cornwall where plans are in place to commission a pilot plant .
Adam Matthews , Exploration Geologist at Cornish Lithium , said : “ Our shallow site centres on a borehole that we drilled in 2019 . A special borehole pump [ not Watson-Marlow ] extracts the geothermal water [ mildly saline , lithium-enriched water ] and feeds into the demonstration processing plant .”
The five Watson-Marlow 530SN / R2 pumps serve two different parts of the test plant , the first of which extracts lithium from the waters by pumping the brine from a container up through a
24 International Mining | JUNE 2022