ter up to 4,000 mt/h of dry solids in a
sludge dewatering plant that was designed
to maximize process water recovery from
the tailings stream. The presses produced
cake with a residual moisture content of
less than 20%, while achieving up to 84%
water recovery and helping to eliminate the
need for tailings ponds.
The mine had previously bought four
Automat 1500 filter presses from Bilfinger
for use in its Merrill Crowe plant.
Gaudfrin Wins
Repeat Business
The French company, Gaudfrin, special-
izes in the design of equipment for the fil-
tration, thickening, clarification, dewater-
ing and washing of solid-liquid separa-
tions. It has a worldwide patent on the
Diastar static-pressure vertical-leaf filter,
which, it said, provides a simple, safe and
economic solution to many filtration
requirements, with more than 300 units
now working in more than 25 countries.
The Diastar filter has no moving parts,
works on short cycles, has an automatic
washing system, and requires very little
intervention from the operator.
Gaudfrin also supplies horizontal vacu-
um belt filters, pressure or vacuum rotary
disc filters, dynamic pressure and vacuum
vertical-leaf "Universal" filters, and the
"Dynapress" dynamic belt-press.
The company said the main applica-
tions for the Diastar filter are the thicken-
ing or clarification of slurries, as well as
cake washing and/or cake dewatering. Its
Univeral filters are used for filtering slurries
with poor filterability, and for cake wash-
ing, plus cake dewatering. Disc filters are
used on concentrate slurries and for cake
dewatering, while its belt filters find appli-
MARCH 2014 • E&MJ; 51 www.e-mj.com
F I LT E R S A N D T H I C K E N E R S
WesTech Engineering recently launched its tower press filter for minerals-sector applications.
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