Modern Mining July 2016

PRODUCT News

Pneuflot technology proves itself in field trials

Pneumatic flotation technology is reported to be delivering outstanding results in field trials involving platinum group metals (PGMs) and iron ore, and will soon be put to the test in gold, rare earth and graphite circuits in Southern Africa. GregoryNiekerk, Business Development Manager at MBE Minerals, says the com- pany’s Pneuflot technology is nearing the completion of an 18-month test at a South African PGM operation. The pilot plant has already delivered a 5 % gain in recovery and yield. This follows a trial in Brazil that was undertaken by a prominent iron ore miner which reported ground-breaking gains using the Pneuflot technology. “This customer undertook an industrial

annual savings of up to €1 million by most conservative calculations for any currently operating mine with AMD problems.” Unlike currently available technolo- gies, the EPSE solution removes metals completely and the precipitate is inert and insoluble. Soluble precipitates of metals are a hazardous waste that must be stored in controlled landfill deposits creating an increasing environmental risk globally as well as high costs for mining and waste treatment companies. The EPSE solution addresses this need in a cost efficient way. Although primarily addressing the numerous metals in mining waste, the system is also capable of substantially reducing concentrations of sulphates, alkali and partially alkaline earth metals which are a major concern where there is a need to recover water to a potable water quality level. Gregory Niekerk, Finestech, tel (+27 72) 622-3340 The company’s industrial plants have diameters ranging from 0,8 m to 6 m with slurry feed rates of between 10 m³/h and 1 400 m³/h. The bigger cells are installed for a cost of less than 25 US cents per m³/h slurry feed. According to Multotec, this places the technology in the lowest capital cost quartile. MBE Minerals SA, tel (+27 11) 397-4660 ite operation in Zimbabwe. The Pneuflot laboratory unit stationed at Mintek will be equally busy on contractual work in rare earth minerals, potash, phosphates and graphite. “Pneuflot is easily ‘plugged and played’ into any part of an existing circuit allowing comparative analysis to be undertaken by mines’ research and development (R&D) teams from float feed to final tails. We have completed a number of installations at the back end of existing float circuits around the world in the last two to three years, where the scavenging of an additional 3 to 5 % allowed the operators to enhance their revenue stream with project payback peri- ods of less than six months,” says Niekerk. MBE Minerals’ pilot plant comprises a one cubic metre feed tank and a 0,8 m diameter cell and is easily containerised for transportation. The pilot plant can be operated in batch and continuous mode and treats up to 10 m 3 /h of slurry.

scale trial using a 4 m diameter cell. Our 40 m 3 Pneuflot cell operated in parallel with a 125 m 3 agitator circuit. Both cir- cuits received 320 t/h of conditioned feed from a splitter box, and the results were overwhelmingly in favour of Pneuflot, prompting the world renowned Professor Antônio Eduardo C. Peres (PhD) of UFMG, Brazil to declare Pneuflot the future of iron ore flotation in his presentation at Flotation 15 ,” says Niekerk. “The footprint of our 4 m diameter cell is 4,5 m 2 and it can handle throughputs between 450 m 3 and 850 m 3 of slurry per hour.” These trials also confirmed that MBE Minerals’ Pneuflot technology uses more than 35 % less electricity than competing technologies. There are also no mechani- cal moving parts in its cell or expensive auxiliaries such as compressors or blow- ers, resulting in reduced maintenance and operating costs, while its structural foot- print is generally 50 to 60 %, smaller than those of agitator cells and column cells of similar capacities. During the next six months, the pneumatic flotation technology will be subjected to more trials at potential cus- tomers’operations, including another PGM circuit on the Western Limb as well as a gold circuit on the East Rand and a graph-

A 3-cell Pneuflot configuration (4 m diameter capable of 460 m 3 /h) doing potash duty for SQM.

Finnish technology can counter acid mine drainage problem What is described as a “revolutionary patented and proven new technology” from Finnish company, Global EcoProcess Services Oy (EPSE), could transform the treatment of acid and industrial waste water and solve the serious problem of metal pol- lution in mining and heavy industry. low operational costs and low investment in infrastructure in a one-step processing solu- tion for hazardous waste water treatment with outstanding results, cost efficiency, purification of polluted water and extrac- tion of metals.

“In countries like South Africa where there is a shortage of clean potable water, EPSE technology brings an innovative solu- tion to a sustainable and better future,” says EPSE CEO and Partner Lasse Musakka. “South Africa has been selected as the pri- mary market for EPSE technology for mine water treatment after extensive market studies and our successful participation at the London Mines and Money conference in December 2015 and at the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town in February 2016. “Our technology has been tested and verified by independent accredited labora- tories and industrial pilot tests and has been estimated to be able to achieve potential

The process produces purified clean water and valuable raw materials by per- manently converting the soluble metals contained in hazardous waste into environ- mentally harmless insoluble metals that can then be used in production for several other processes. The one-step EPSE solution is simple, fast, cost effective and irreversible and – says EPSE – is set to be a game changer in acid mine drainage (AMD), especially in South African mining where the volume of waste water from just one mine can be as much as 300 000 m³/day. According to EPSE, key advantages are

52  MODERN MINING  July 2016