746 XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3
the weave (broken or stretched yarns) that may allow fine
particles to pass through. It’s usually for the filtrate to con-
tain some solid particles during the first minute or so of
filtration. If necessary, the filtrate can be diverted until it
becomes clean.
Polishing
For uses such as high-pressure cloth washing (and in some
cases, cloth rinsing), it may be necessary to use a polishing
filter to remove fine particles to below the recommended
level (for the washing pump and spray nozzles).
CASE STUDY
The scale of mining operations has been increasing over
the last twenty years (at least), particularly in the copper
sector. The adoption of pressure filtration and dry stacking
as a reliable and safe method of managing mine tailings
(Whittering et al.,2019 Stickland, 2023) has driven the fil-
ter press suppliers regularly servicing this market to design
and build larger machines to appropriately satisfy this
increasing scale. The need to minimise the risk of failures,
and environmental footprint while maximising the water
recovery is driving the development of tailings filtration.
There is now increasing cooperation between the different
entities (mining companies, engineering groups and equip-
ment manufacturers) needed for a coordinated approach
(Cooke et al., 2023).
Filter presses currently used in mine tailing’s applica-
tions are typically already very large. However, as demon-
strated in previous papers, the number of filter trains (each
train consisting of a filter press, drip tray, cake discharge
chute, cake feeder/conveyor, slurry feed pump(s), asso-
ciated piping and electrical wiring, etc.) has a significant
effect on capital cost and operating cost. Limiting the
number of trains to the minimum (allowing for appropri-
ate standby capacity) for a particular duty is desirable from
an economic point of view. This was the justification for
designing and building the very large filters currently used
in tailings applications. These are already large machines
and have been in operation for at least ten years.
The copper tailings sector includes mines that require
the management of huge amounts of tails. Filtration and
dry stacking of these tails has been selected as the most
desirable management technology, particularly for safety
and water recovery. The quantity of tailings from a single
copper mine can be more than 50,000 tonnes per day (dry
basis) but for the very large mines it can even range to more
than 200,000 tonnes per day (dry basis). For this scale, the
number of even the largest filter presses currently available
is very high and results in a complex and expensive installa-
tion. There is now a need for the development of a signifi-
cantly larger filter press (Grosso et al., 2021).
Filter press suppliers have been working on new larger
filter press designs with approximately three times the cham-
ber volume and filtration area of its existing fast filter press
currently used for tailings applications (already very large).
An example of one of these new designs is the ‘GHT5000’
manufactured by Diemme filtration. This paper presents
some of the features of this filter press but focuses on how
the increased capacity favourably affects the CAPEX and
OPEX of a tailings filtration plant with a very high process-
ing duty, typical of those found in the copper sector.
The case study is a summary of the design and instal-
lation of a very large filter press at a copper mine in Peru.
This filter press is the biggest currently available, capable of
reaching a filtration area of up to 25 m2 and a total volume
of up to 600 liters per single chamber, with a plate size of
5,000 × 5,000 mm. This filter has been especially devel-
oped for high-capacity tailings dewatering plants, typically
higher than 35,000 tonnes per day of dry solid. The unit
is part of a demonstration plant built to evaluate the use of
dry stacking in place of the current thickened tailings dam.
The demonstration plant capacity will be 8,000 tonnes per
day and the required cake moisture, based on geotechnical
studies and dry stack design needs, is below 15% w/w. The
next step will be a full-scale plant with an overall capacity
of 80,000 tonnes per day.
The filter sizing was based on the findings of the testing
phase, carried out by means of a bench filter press. A sum-
mary of the main findings and the sizing, commissioning
and start-up of the industrial filter will be presented below.
One of the drivers for the selection of this technology is
that it provides a high amount of water recovery.
Results and Discussion
The main results of the tailings characterisation are reported
in Table 1.
The characterization data are useful to get the proper
configuration of the teste equipment used in the experi-
ment. The tailings sample shows an average-to-coarse par-
ticle size distribution, with the presence of fine sand and
silty-clayey fractions. The quantity of phyllosilicates is high
but there’s no evidence of the presence of swelling clays,
therefore the slurry is expected to show fast filterability and
the cake will likely be permeable allowing good desatura-
tion but also well consolidated. Taking all this into account,
the first phase of testing has been focused on the technology
selection, by trying different filter configurations:
the weave (broken or stretched yarns) that may allow fine
particles to pass through. It’s usually for the filtrate to con-
tain some solid particles during the first minute or so of
filtration. If necessary, the filtrate can be diverted until it
becomes clean.
Polishing
For uses such as high-pressure cloth washing (and in some
cases, cloth rinsing), it may be necessary to use a polishing
filter to remove fine particles to below the recommended
level (for the washing pump and spray nozzles).
CASE STUDY
The scale of mining operations has been increasing over
the last twenty years (at least), particularly in the copper
sector. The adoption of pressure filtration and dry stacking
as a reliable and safe method of managing mine tailings
(Whittering et al.,2019 Stickland, 2023) has driven the fil-
ter press suppliers regularly servicing this market to design
and build larger machines to appropriately satisfy this
increasing scale. The need to minimise the risk of failures,
and environmental footprint while maximising the water
recovery is driving the development of tailings filtration.
There is now increasing cooperation between the different
entities (mining companies, engineering groups and equip-
ment manufacturers) needed for a coordinated approach
(Cooke et al., 2023).
Filter presses currently used in mine tailing’s applica-
tions are typically already very large. However, as demon-
strated in previous papers, the number of filter trains (each
train consisting of a filter press, drip tray, cake discharge
chute, cake feeder/conveyor, slurry feed pump(s), asso-
ciated piping and electrical wiring, etc.) has a significant
effect on capital cost and operating cost. Limiting the
number of trains to the minimum (allowing for appropri-
ate standby capacity) for a particular duty is desirable from
an economic point of view. This was the justification for
designing and building the very large filters currently used
in tailings applications. These are already large machines
and have been in operation for at least ten years.
The copper tailings sector includes mines that require
the management of huge amounts of tails. Filtration and
dry stacking of these tails has been selected as the most
desirable management technology, particularly for safety
and water recovery. The quantity of tailings from a single
copper mine can be more than 50,000 tonnes per day (dry
basis) but for the very large mines it can even range to more
than 200,000 tonnes per day (dry basis). For this scale, the
number of even the largest filter presses currently available
is very high and results in a complex and expensive installa-
tion. There is now a need for the development of a signifi-
cantly larger filter press (Grosso et al., 2021).
Filter press suppliers have been working on new larger
filter press designs with approximately three times the cham-
ber volume and filtration area of its existing fast filter press
currently used for tailings applications (already very large).
An example of one of these new designs is the ‘GHT5000’
manufactured by Diemme filtration. This paper presents
some of the features of this filter press but focuses on how
the increased capacity favourably affects the CAPEX and
OPEX of a tailings filtration plant with a very high process-
ing duty, typical of those found in the copper sector.
The case study is a summary of the design and instal-
lation of a very large filter press at a copper mine in Peru.
This filter press is the biggest currently available, capable of
reaching a filtration area of up to 25 m2 and a total volume
of up to 600 liters per single chamber, with a plate size of
5,000 × 5,000 mm. This filter has been especially devel-
oped for high-capacity tailings dewatering plants, typically
higher than 35,000 tonnes per day of dry solid. The unit
is part of a demonstration plant built to evaluate the use of
dry stacking in place of the current thickened tailings dam.
The demonstration plant capacity will be 8,000 tonnes per
day and the required cake moisture, based on geotechnical
studies and dry stack design needs, is below 15% w/w. The
next step will be a full-scale plant with an overall capacity
of 80,000 tonnes per day.
The filter sizing was based on the findings of the testing
phase, carried out by means of a bench filter press. A sum-
mary of the main findings and the sizing, commissioning
and start-up of the industrial filter will be presented below.
One of the drivers for the selection of this technology is
that it provides a high amount of water recovery.
Results and Discussion
The main results of the tailings characterisation are reported
in Table 1.
The characterization data are useful to get the proper
configuration of the teste equipment used in the experi-
ment. The tailings sample shows an average-to-coarse par-
ticle size distribution, with the presence of fine sand and
silty-clayey fractions. The quantity of phyllosilicates is high
but there’s no evidence of the presence of swelling clays,
therefore the slurry is expected to show fast filterability and
the cake will likely be permeable allowing good desatura-
tion but also well consolidated. Taking all this into account,
the first phase of testing has been focused on the technology
selection, by trying different filter configurations: