Mining in focus
Mining: reducing water usage
– more than just an aspiration
Water management is emerging as the pre-eminent sustainability issue within
the global energy and mining resource industries, and mining companies are
under increasing pressure to balance costs, increase productivity, and reduce
water usage, writes Tarren Bolton.
T
he mining sector remains a key
economic contributor to the South
African economy and is one of the
toughest industrialised working environments.
Driven by a constant need to maximise on
yield for profitability, the sector faces several
challenges, and often simultaneously. Not least
of all is the constant need of having to balance
costs versus return-on-investment (ROI)
in the wake of fluxes in the global economy
that directly impact investment, cash flows
and planning, and trade or export potential
of mineral resources. Added to this, water
management is emerging as the pre-eminent
sustainability issue within the global energy
and mining resource industries.
Darryl Macdougall, managing director
of Verder Pumps South Africa, says that
water has always been a fundamentally
important resource across all mining and
quarrying developments and operations.
However, as water scarcity becomes a reality,
mining companies are faced with numerous
civil and environmental pressures and need
to proactively review the impact that their
upstream and downstream operations are
having on the availability and quality of
this non-renewable resource. This includes
having a deeper understanding of where the
mine gets its water from, how it disposes
of or recycles it, what the water is being
used for, potential losses or gains, and the
related risks and opportunities — from both
a corporate and an individual operation site
level — and start to implement innovative
solutions that will reduce the mine’s reliance
on and usage of water.
Adopting peristaltic pump technology is
a solution that will improve the dewatering
of the product and subsequently water
conservation, and in the process contribute to
higher production capacity and a reduction in
maintenance and operating costs.
Bottom line, peristaltic pumps use less
water. Hose pumps can circulate slurry
specific gravities (SGs) of 1.6 to 1.8 or up to
80% solid content, whereas the traditional
centrifugal pump loses efficiency when the
slurry SG reaches 1.3 or 30% solids. Given
this limitation, slurry pumps have significant
process water demands: for example, on a
plant processing 75 tonnes of ore per hour,
and at 65% solids, every time a peristaltic hose
replaces a process slurry pump, it could save up
to 1 100 million litres of water annually when
compared with the traditional slurry pump.
The hose pump requires less than 25% of the
process water of a slurry pump.
Adopting peristaltic pump
technology
Adopting peristaltic pump technology is a solution that will improve the dewatering of the product and
subsequently, water conservation.
[36] MINING MIRROR MARCH 2019
Local mining companies are undoubtedly
under increasing pressure to balance costs,
increase productivity, and reduce water
usage. However, navigating the technical
www.miningmirror.co.za