FLOTATION larger , with ten HydroFloat modules .
IM spoke to Eric Bain Wasmund , Eriez Vice President Global Flotation Business . He commented : “ More and more HydroFloat ® coarse particle flotation projects are being studied , piloted , engineered and developed , across the globe . The major advantages for users are less energy use , less net water use , debottlenecking of expensive assets like grinding mills , and the production of safer tailings . Innovative companies like Anglo American are developing complementary technology as part of their FutureSmartMining ® platform that can take advantage of features of the HydroFloat , for example , using the inherent coarse size distribution of the tail to develop low-cost drystacking with the potential of a water-less mine . The ecosystem for applications and equipment that unlock the benefits of CPF is starting to grow .”
He adds that HydroFloats are being used in the traditional tail scavenging application , which typically yields 4-6 % additional global flotation recovery and allows higher mill throughputs . “ Anglo ’ s Quellaveco will be the largest tail scavenging plant when it is commissioned next year , and more plants of a similar size are expected . HydroFloats have also been demonstrated in the coarse gangue rejection or ore-sorting application at El Soldado . In this application generally , there are potential reductions of 20 % for mill energy and 80 % for net water consumption .”
Interestingly he says that as the HydroFloat becomes more commercially accepted , there is a recognition that HydroFloat flowsheets are fundamentally different from conventional flotation flowsheets : “ There is complementary equipment , configurations and operating paradigms that need to be brought to the application and tested as part of an integrated system . This approach involves contributions from the owner ’ s technical teams , engineering houses , and vendors .”
Finally , while the HydroFloat is the key unit operation for CPF , Wasmund says it is not the only success factor for the application . “ In a previous HydroFloat CPF demonstration module , Eriez worked closely with the stakeholder groups including other vendors to test and supply equipment , and then to assist the owner to assess the outcomes and make adjustments , and one of those vendors was Weir . We learned that the high abrasion caused by monodisperse coarse ore slurries requires special lining materials and computational techniques to predict wear . We also learned that optimised feed classification can have a positive impact on the mass balance and performance of the CPF circuit .”
The other big and exciting news from Eriez is
Anglo CPR plant at Quellaveco
Anglo American confirmed to IM that construction of what it calls the Coarse Particle Recovery ( CPR ) plant at the Quellaveco copper mine in Peru , which includes the Eriez HydroFloat technology , started two months ago and will be completed in H2 2023 , adding : “ As far as we know , this will be the largest CPR plant in the world in the copper industry .” Metso Outotec Vertimills are also used at Quellaveco in addition to SAG mills and ball mills , specifically to regrind the HydroFloat concentrate so that it can be returned to the flotation cells . The Quellaveco CPR plant design was completed by DRA . While learnings from El Soldado were incorporated into the design , at Quellaveco the CPR is used to scavenge coarse losses from plant tailings which is a different configuration . At Quellaveco the CPR plant will also use recycled water from the tailings thickeners , saving fresh water .
the announcement that Weir Minerals and Eriez Flotation have announced a cooperative agreement to design and develop CPF systems . Weir Minerals has families of products in wear linings and wet slurry classification , so Wasmund argues that they are well suited to this role . “ The combination of pumps , cyclones , classification equipment , and other mill circuit products supplied by Weir Minerals , along with Eriez ’ game-changing HydroFloat , StackCell ® , columns and sparging systems , allows owners to take advantage of well-matched equipment designed and tested as a system . This makes Weir a natural fit for contributing to CPF flowsheets .”
The non-exclusive cooperation agreement sees Weir and Eriez supporting each other in offering coarse particle flotation flowsheets to customers , who have the option to consider Weir and Eriez packages together or separately . This cooperative model is fundamentally different from the traditional OEM model of lumping multiple equipment offerings under a single vendor .
“ The other advantage particle recovery in of this arrangement is one device . that in the future , owner ’ s teams will have the possibility to test the integration of Weir and Eriez equipment at the piloting and demonstration scale , thereby reducing perceived technical risk in project development . At Eriez , we believe that this partnership will help the CPF ecosystem to grow more quickly and will benefit our customers who are using this technology to make game-changing improvements to the mining business .”
ProProcess – perfecting mobile flotation pilot plants
In August 2020 South Africa ’ s ProProcess was awarded the EPC contract for a Fines Flotation Mobile Pilot Plant , which included the detailed design , assembly and water commissioning of the plant at the ProProcess premises in Johannesburg . This phase of the project was completed within eight months . Modular process plant projects have the advantage of reducing overall construction and installation time by 30 to 50 %. Further to this , ProProcess has over the past 12 years developed and optimised an inhouse project execution methodology to fabricate and assemble these plants in the shortest time possible .
This particular modular process plant is used for platinum concentrate flowsheet optimisation
PROFITABLE Increases mine throughput by up to 60 %.
SUSTAINABLE Reduces energy and water consumption by up to 50 %.
Explore Jord ’ s pioneering range of ������������������������������������
OCTOBER 2022 | International Mining 53