Prefiltration to Gold Concentrator, Russia

Background

One of the largest gold producers in Russia (with the most gold mines in the whole country) was looking to add a new production line at one of the mines, situated in the far east of Russia, in order to increase capacity.
The project specifications mentioned a different filter manufacturer, and the customer was looking for an alternative. Amiad is a well-known and respected brand in this market, and therefore the customer reached out to our local representative.

Challenge

The gold mine concentrator manufacturer requires that the particle size at the inlet of concentrator must be no larger than 50 micron.
The challenges at this particular location were:

• Very poor water quality at inlet: 60 mg/l
• Fine filtration requirement: equal to or less than 50 micron
• Remote location of the mine: approx. 400 km from the nearest city of Magadan. This made it very difficult for service people to arrive, and to bring in the required equipment.
• Extreme weather conditions: in the winter, the temperature can drop to -50o C

Solution

After studying the water quality data, we determined that the best solution would include 2-stage filtration:
Stage 1: 80 micron – 2 x Omega 27K
Stage 2: 50 micron – 2 x Omega 27K
Stage 1 would sufficiently reduce the particle load before the fine filtration of Stage 2, and would increase the time required between flushes.

Results

The water quality at the concentrator inlet meets the manufacturer’s requirement.
The filtration system has been operational since 2017, without no complications, and the customer is very pleased with the performance of the Omega filters on the new production line.