Highlights

Design, supply and installation of new filter plant, which operates to dewater gravity gold tailings prior to transport and placement within a heap-leach facility.
Decoupling of milling/gravity circuit from fresh process water supply. Offsetting of local aquifer use, pumping costs associated with fresh water supply.
Monthly recovery of ~20,000 m3 of process water (<100 ppm TSS), equating to 15% net reduction.

Challenge

Fine solid particles had been passing through the vibrating screen’s coarse aperture, and recirculating back into the cyclone and thickener.

Solution

We installed a single CX5-80 (80 m2) ceramic disc vacuum filtration system at this gravity-flotation ILR gold plant in Sonora, Mexico to discharge the fine solid particles from the circuit. Delivered ahead of schedule, this filter plant has been operating since 2015, receiving the thickened underflow of cyclone fines from the processing plant.

Benefit

Rather than build and operate a “wet” tailings storage facility, the company now transports the filter-cake overland for storage in the project’s heap leach facility. The filtrate recovered by this filter is of extremely high quality (<100 ppm TSS) and is piped directly to offset process water consumption in the gravity circuit.

What the people are saying

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Not only did they meet our technical objective, which was to recover process water, but they have exceeded our expectations with respect to ease of operation, and after-sales service.”
JOSE ALBERTO MARQUEZ
PROJECT MANAGER, PLANT SUPERINTENDENT - Mulatos Mine, Sonora, Mexico