Engineering & Mining Journal

MAR 2016

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Eriez Will Supply Process Equipment to African Phosphate Mine 72 E&MJ; • MARCH 2016 www.e-mj.com P R O C E S S I N G S O LU T I O N S Eriez Manufacturing Co.'s Flotation Division (EFD), formerly known as Canadian Process Technologies,has been selected to supply proprietary process equipment to the Kropz Elandsfontein phosphate project on the west coast of South Africa. The EFD equip- ment includes CrossFlow separators for size classification, a rotary slurry powered dis- tributor for stream splitting and 10 flotation columns. The equipment will be commis- sioned in 2016. The Elandsfontein property is the sec- ond largest phosphate deposit in South Africa after the Phalaborwa deposit. Samancor, who operated a phosphate mine near Langebaan, identified and drilled the Elandsfontein deposit in 1985, but chose not to develop the project. According to DRA International, which was awarded a contract for the engineering implementa- tion phase of the project, the new process- ing facility and its associated infrastructure is designed to produce approximately 1.35 million metric tons per year (mt/y) of phos- phate concentrate. Included in the process plant will be screening, classification, milling, reverse flotation, dewatering and product handling. Tailings will be dewa- tered by belt filter prior to dry stacking. The order for Eriez equipment followed completion of an extensive analysis for pro- cessing ore from the Elandsfontein deposit. EFD said a team of its mineral processing engineers and technologists working at the Eriez Test Lab in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA, developed various flotation flow sheets for ore processing. Following a number of test campaigns and evaluations, Kropz and DRA International, worked closely with EFD personnel to design and select the optimal flow sheet. EFD said it has supplied flotation equipment for more than 100 phosphate applications in the United States, Brazil, Canada and China, including HydroFloat for floating coarse ore, CrossFlow separa- tors for sizing ore, and flotation columns with sparging technology based on specific ore particle characteristics. Dundee to Carry Out Arsenic Stabilization Study Dundee Sustainable Technologies (DST), based in Quebec, Canada, has entered into a retainer agreement with an uniden- tified international gold mining company to evaluate the feasibility of integrating DST's proprietary arsenic stabilization technology for the sequestration of arseni- cal matter produced in the gold extraction process. This technology, according to DST, enables sequestration of arsenic in a stable glass form. The objective of the two-stage agreement is to establish a two-phase approach aimed to confirm, at pilot plant scale, that the technology can be successfully implement- ed on material targeted for stabilization. In the next step, a techno-economic study would be performed at the prefeasibility level to evaluate the technical and econom- ic implications of a full-scale DST arsenic vitrification plant located at the site of the gold producer's operation. The gold compa- ny will pay a consultancy fee to DST for work carried out as part of the agreement. DST said its process uses lower cost chemicals to economically produce a more stable product than current industrial prac- tices. This process to stabilize arsenic is becoming an attractive technique to segre- gate the arsenic and is therefore opening new opportunities for contaminated site remediation and for deposits or concen- trates considered to contain too much arsenic to be exploited using conventional approaches. The produced glass is non-toxic and conforms to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's toxicity characterization leaching procedure (TCLP, Method 1311). Dundee Sustainable Technologies, orig- inally known as Nichromet Extraction, was incorporated in 1997 and is engaged in developing proprietary hydrometallurgical processes for the extraction of base and precious metals from ores, concentrates and tailings that cannot be exploited with conventional processes because of metal- lurgical or environmental issues. Ucore Reports Progress on REE-Separation Process Plant Ucore Rare Metals Inc. recently issued an update on preparations for its SuperLig- One rare-earth separation pilot plant. Approximately 40 metric tons of mate- rial sourced from the company's flagship Bokan-Dotson Ridge property in southeast Alaska was processed at Tomra Systems ASA, Koblenz, Germany, utilizing DEXRT ore sorting technology. The process result- ed in approximately 19 mt of sorted rare earth-bearing material. Ucore said the Tomra work represents the first step in the company's process flowsheet: delivering upgraded material that is consistent with prior test work, eliminating approximately 52% of the feed as waste while retaining 96% of the rare-earth oxides. A 3-mt bulk sample was split from the sorted material and shipped to SGS Lakefield Research Ltd., Lakefield, Ontario, Canada, where SGS will utilize the circuit developed for Ucore's Preliminary Economic Assessment, which includes crushing, grinding and magnetic separation, followed Crossflow separators, shown here in a recent installa- tion, are among several types of process equipment to deliver to a large African phosphate project by Eriez Manufacturing's Flotation division. The final product from Dundee Sustainable Technolo- gy's arsenic stabilization process is non-toxic glass material, a sample of which is shown here.

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