MATERIALS PROCESSING MINED TO PERFECTION Wilfried Staijen (right)
In this Q+A, Wilfried Staijen, Global Business Development Manager – Mining at Watson- Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions (WMFTS), explains how certain pumps can improve productivity in the mining industry
f mining companies are to increase production while minimising downtime and their environmental impact, choosing the right pumps is critically important. As well as limiting costs, other considerations such as water scarcity, power consumption and meeting regulations are also priorities. Q. What challenges are facing mining and mineral processing companies in 2025? A. First of all, water availability. If you go to Chile, South Africa or Australia, water scarcity is a challenge for mining companies. In some cases, they pump desalinated sea water into the mountains or deserts where the mining sites are located. A progressive cavity pump and centrifugal pump has seals inside and those seals need to be flushed continuously with a lot of fresh water. These pumps need clean water and not sea water too, and the mining companies must treat the used water to use it again, and the environment at the site becomes muddy.
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But if you look at the design of peristaltic pumps such as the Bredel hose pump, it doesn’t have a mechanical seal. With peristaltic pumps, you don’t need to flush them so that is a major saving on fresh water. A Bredel pump can transfer a product with solids up to 80%, and that means the water content is much lower than what it must be for a centrifugal pump.
Then there is more power consumption. If you look at centrifugal pumps they need 50- 60% more motor power to operate at the same flow as the peristaltic pump. Peristaltic pumps take up 40-50% of pump power compared to the centrifugal pump. When you change the speed of a centrifugal pump it
36 MAY 2025 | PROCESS & CONTROL
moves away from the best efficiency point and the power consumption is even more. With the Bredel, when you bring down the pump speed you also consume less power. This efficiency allows mining companies to save on power and diesel to generate the electricity on site. Leakage, and mining’s impact on the local environment is becoming increasingly important. When you walk on a mining site you will see pumps leaking water, slurry and reagents. Our pumps can do the dosing job without a problem and when the tubing in the pumphead eventually fails and needs replacing on a Qdos pump, it is detected by the controller and the pump stops so there is no leakage of chemical reagents, it stays in the pump. The Bredel also has a pump housing and when the hose fails, the chemical remains inside, so it is contained.
Having a robust and reliable pump is important. The centrifugal pump at some point will stop pumping and it will not deliver the slurry to the analyser, where as the peristaltic will always deliver.
Costs are always a priority. Overdosing reagents is expensive, while underdosing results in the loss of valuable minerals and an extra expensive step in the process to extract the minerals from the slurry. Watson-Marlow cased pumps and Qdos chemical metering pumps provide accurate and controlled dosing of chemical reagents, which ensures that mining companies do not overdose in their processes, saving chemical reagents costs. Q. What are the consequences for mining companies if a pump fails? A. Mining is a 24/7 process: the ore comes in and it leaves the plant, it never stops. If
production stops it is a major issue and it can take days, or weeks to get the process up again. If a mining company stops the process, it has to clean and drain the system completely, and empty all the tanks and vessels. But all critical processes have a back- up process line. When the duty pump fails, the backup pump will take over. If the standby pump fails, then you have a serious problem. It is therefore important that the defective pump is repaired quickly and safely, which is easily done with Bredel pumps.
Q. Why is it important for mining companies to have reliable, low maintenance pumps? A. The number of staff on mining sites is being minimised as much as possible, and the staff might not be trained enough into how to run and maintain the equipment. Failure to detect maintenance issues can result in the pump breaking down overnight, leaving the morning shift with an empty tank and extensive damage to the pump. With a less skilled workforce, it is important to have reliable and long-lasting products.
Q. How do Bredel pumps minimise negative impacts on the environment? A. At Cornish Metals’ South Crofty tin mine, eight Bredel hose pumps are transferring sludge at the mine’s water treatment plant. Three Qdos chemical metering pumps also reliably dose hydrogen peroxide to oxidise the contaminated metals in the mine water. By treating the contaminated mine water which has been pumped out of a flooded mineshaft, Cornish Metals has hugely improved the quality of water of a nearby river. Q. What makes Bredel so suitable for transferring thickener underflow at mining sites around the world? A. Concentrated mineral slurries are pumped through a filter press where a filter cake is formed that is transported to the smelters for further processing. The less water in the slurry, the smaller the filters can be and the smaller the filter press pumps. By increasing the solid content in the thickeners, less water passes through the pump and filter, but traditional slurry pumps can only pump 40% solids content. The Bredel hose pump, with its peristaltic design, can pump up to 80% dry matter. So by using a Bredel pump, you can ultimately save on filter capacity. The Bredel pump can also be controlled with a frequency controller.
WMFTS
www.wmfts.com/en/mining/watson- marlow-pumps
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