Cavity pumps aid mining operations
Roger Willis reports on how a mining operation uses progressing cavity pumps to efficiently move slurry.
A
t a gold and silver mining operation in Mexico, a customer turned to Netzsch for a low- maintenance solution to pumping slurry with a high
concentration of minerals. One of the processes involved in the mining of gold and silver requires the concentration of mineral slurry – essentially dewatering a mixture of mineral ore and water. At a large gold and silver mining operation in northern Mexico, the customer was having problems optimising the transport of slurry from its dewatering process, causing havoc with pumps involved in the operation.
Te customer was looking to achieve a concentration of 60% mineral solids in the slurry. Te problem it faced was that the centrifugal pumps transporting the decanted slurry were not able to pump slurry with a concentration above 30%. Looking for a solution to its problems with centrifugal pumps, the customer tried out another pump type. However, after two days of operation the pump housing was destroyed. Netzsch was then contacted to solve this production problem. Antonio Castilhos, a Netzsch representative
32
www.engineerlive.com
recalls, “When I first learned about the slurry concentration the customer was looking to pump, I wasn’t sure if we could achieve that. However, I knew if we could get the customer to a higher concentration of minerals in the slurry, they would be able to produce more silver and more gold per hour, at a lower cost. So, we decided to take a look.” Netzsch is using the Nemo progressing cavity pump for various applications without any problems.
Testing times Te company began production trials at the mine with a stock Nemo progressing cavity pump. Troughout the trials, the water content in the slurry was constantly lowered until the water injection was stopped altogether – with the pump able to pump slurry of up to 65% of minerals solids. Castilhos remembers, “With the capabilities of the Nemo pump line to work in difficult processes, we were able to pump the slurry without any injection of water. Te customer told us that this level of performance would pay for the cost of the pump within two or three hours of operation.” Additionally, with less water in the slurry, the next processing phase (leaching) would be able to use a lower
Nemo progressing cavity pump, seen here in slurry transfer service.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60