just for some research from an italian company website regarding...

just for some research from an italian company website regarding filter press use case study and parameters to engineer a filter for a project........
seems a fair few variables that also is determined by the upstream optimized processing of the ore as to the filters capacity to function at design capacity
I would assume this path was taken due to water constraints at the location which this filter adds efficiency towards and also possible less expense in tailings dam management ?

Maybe the resident mechanical engineer can shed some light on their knowledge of this approach - outside of "management is awefull" and "its a cheap plant" thats at fault ?

Copper Tailings generated from Copper mining is one of the highest contributor to the total global tailings generation. And as the ore grades are decreasing, copper mining industry is generating even more tailings. Managing this huge amount of Copper Tailings by conventional tailings storage facilities or tailings dams is a huge challenge with potentially disastrous environmental impacts or loss of precious life in case of tailings dam collapse.

Our customer was evaluating Pressure Filtration by Filter Press & dry stacking disposal as now this is well proven as the most environment friendly disposal method for Copper Tailings dewatering.

Additionally Filtration of Copper Tailings by Filter Press substantially increases the water recovery from Tailings & recycling the water back to the concentrator can result more water efficient Copper Concentrator.

For this Copper Tailings Filtration application both Chamber or a mixed plate pack Filter Press is used in order to define the optimum filter press process parameters to achieve the desired filter press performance.

A representative copper tailings sample is collected & tested in Dewater Filter Press R & D Laboratory in Italy in a lab scale Filter Press.

The first step was to understand the copper tailings slurry chemical & physical characteristics & tests such as elemental analysis, dimensional Particle size analysis, IR Spectroscopic analysis, XRD Crystalline Phase analysis were conducted.

Subsequently multiple filtration tests were conducted on the copper tailings slurry sample by altering

• filter press plate configurations,
• chamber thickness,
• feeding,
• squeezing,
• cake blowing pressures & time

to define the optimum filtration parameters to reach the performance parameters required by the customer.