Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr
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P R O C E S S I N G S O LU T I O N S Retrofitting of existing plants with Turbulent Mixing reduces operational expenditure and may increase production, showing a very high return on investment for the technology despite the price premium. Because replacement of the mixing tanks is not necessary (only internals require replacement), installation of Turbulent Technologies mixers is easily performed during routine shutdowns. Tenova Bateman Technologies is carrying out the first commercial installations of these mixers, which are being retrofitted at various plants around the world. Existing auxiliary mixers are being replaced in situ, in order to increase mass transfer and solve problems of high entrainment. New plants incorporating Turbulent Mixing benefit from lower capex, with higher flux/throughput and/or smaller settlers, as well as smaller media filters for organic removal. As the physical characteristics of the organic and aqueous phases in each SX plant are unique, each customer's unique parameters are processed, using special turbulent flow software to custom design a uniform mixing regime at a precise level of turbulent mixing energy. Plants can therefore mix more intensively to optimize mass transfer, without fear of negative consequences downstream. At the same time, they are actually reducing entrainment, improving mass transfer and therefore increasing recoveries. Extensive on-site testing has shown that Turbulent Mixing delivers a greater than 50% reduction in entrainment, and provides very stable and consistent performance, even when process parameters are changed. For a plant producing 40,000 t/y of Cu, an increase in 0.5% of extraction efficiency means increased annual production of 200 t of Cu. Mine operators are becoming increasingly attentive to the waterconsumption requirements, as well as water-recovery and treatment capabilities, of new or expanded processing plants. Can Bateman Technologies offer assistance in this technology area? How about help with energy savings? We can indeed offer our own as well as applied technology in this area. Solutions include concepts ranging from simple practices such as keeping waste water streams segregated, to selective removal of undesirable contaminants through ion exchange. Optimizing the removal of contaminants/valuable metals at the correct place in the process can lead to reduced sizes of effluent treatment plants and consequently reduced energy consumptions and disposal costs. Incorporation of MetRIX RIP in a flowsheet will generally result in a lower overall water inventory; that is, higher solution tenors on the plant and, although the overall water requirement for the plant might not be significantly lower, the water treatment requirements should be lower. An under-utilized technology is the further treatment of domestic effluent, rendering it fit for re-use as process water, reducing fresh water intake requirements. Most of the solutions rely on a combination of several processes to achieve the desired result. This requires capital spending and the good solutions are those that succeed in targeting the high-impact areas to gain the most significant results at the lowest investment cost. With respect to energy savings, the most significant impact for new plants can be achieved during the initial plant design. The best opportunity is during flowsheet development, followed by good hydraulic design and lastly, selection of efficient process equipment. To achieve savings once a plant is operational is usually a challenge, requiring capital investment, which may be out of proportion to the savings that can be achieved. It is possible, however, www.e-mj.com and in a case where water recovery is retrofitted to an existing plant, power savings can also be indirectly achieved. This is usually as a result of reduced pumping costs. Once again, solutions are unique with the potential effect determined by the process design, physical configuration and location of the plant. Modular plants are usually regarded as a useful option in special situations involving recovery of familiar products such as gold, coal and diamonds. Are there any recent developments for new, "novel" modular-plant technology involving processing of other metals and minerals? We have successfully broadened our modular plant technology offering from our traditional focus on DMS for diamond processing to provide modular solutions, incorporating complete flowsheets, for processing a range of commodities. We utilize different processing technologies, such as SX, ion exchange, electrowinning (EW) or gravity concentration, to design a robust plant that optimizes the balance, not only between capex and opex, but also process efficiency. For example, using ultra-high DMS technology for beneficiating iron ore, one can increase the densities at which separation can be achieved (above 4.2 g/cm3). This will potentially enable significantly higher yields to be achieved at the same product grades, when compared with jigging technology, due to the high separation efficiencies that are possible. Tenova Bateman Technologies also completed designs for a modular gold and copper ore-to-metal solutions, including unit operations such as DMS, flotation, SX and EW, and is currently developing a modular MetRIX RIP plant that can be applied to gold and base metals, and uranium processing. AUGUST 2013 • E&MJ; 105