Cornish Metals Inc yesterday began wet commissioning, originally expected in May, of its new mine water treatment plant at South Crofty.
PROCESS
The plant will use high density sludge (HDS) process technology to treat raw mine water with 25,000m3/day of water pumped directly from South Crofty tin mine.
The Canadian company will fill all the reaction tanks with water and check for leaks before electrically testing the motor and control circuits, commissioning the reagent addition modules, and receiving first fills of all reagents.
Once running, the plant will start treating the water to allow a bed of thickened, or high density, sludge to build up within the plant.
“This sludge building step is an essential part of the HDS process and is required to achieve the permitted water quality standards for discharge,” said the company.
“During the sludge building process, the raw water from the mine is treated through the plant and then re-circulated back into the mine.
“Not until the plant is fully operational and performing to the required standards will any treated water be discharged to the Red River.”
Commissioning and building of the high density sludge bed is expected to take up to three weeks, with full dewatering of the mine anticipated to start in October.
“The commencement of wet commissioning at the South Crofty MWTP [mine water treatment plant] is another exciting step towards the dewatering of South Crofty Mine,” said chief executive officer Richard Williams.
“Our project team, supported by a small army of dedicated local contractors, has worked extremely hard over the last 12 months to take the MWTP from a conceptual flowsheet design through to a fully constructed plant.”