Greater water recovery, longer life – thickener and clarifier upgrades

Significant reduction in water to tailings

Customers have reduced water to tailings by up to 46% by upgrading their thickener. An Australian gold mine reduced water consumption by upgrading their thickener with E-DUC^® autodilution and E-Volute^™ feedwell systems. The E-Volute feedwell optimizes flocculation and aggregate growth, while the E-DUC feed dilution system minimizes flocculant use and increases settling rates. This resulted in a 50% solids (w/w) underflow density, 46% less water to tailings, and a 40% reduction in flocculant consumption (gram/tonne).

Swift ROI thanks to increased throughput

Thickener and clarifier upgrades can pay for themselves in less than a year, depending on the application, thanks to increased throughput and lower operating costs. With increased water recovery and lower flocculant consumption, day-to-day costs are significantly lower. One customer’s increased water recovery saved them US$18 million per year.

Increase in availability with predictive maintenance

Older thickeners, though reliable, should be assessed for rebuild every 20 years to prevent failure and downtime. A catastrophic failure, especially in tailings thickeners with no redundancy, could cause an entire plant shutdown. Our thickener and clarifier rebuild services extend the life of your equipment through timely maintenance. Regular mechanical audits are recommended to identify necessary work. Rebuilds can be completed in as little as 2 days, fitting within planned maintenance outages.