The Industrial Application of Ultrafiltation and Reverse Osmosis … Presentation_canada.pdf · 1...

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1 The Industrial Application of Ultrafiltation and Reverse Osmosis for the Recovery of Cu, Ag and CN from Gold Leach Liquors. A.J. Monhemius Anglo Asian Mining plc

Transcript of The Industrial Application of Ultrafiltation and Reverse Osmosis … Presentation_canada.pdf · 1...

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The Industrial Application of Ultrafiltation and Reverse Osmosis for the Recovery of Cu, Ag and CN

from Gold Leach Liquors.

A.J. Monhemius Anglo Asian Mining plc

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Disclaimer The information in this document is subject to updating, revision and amendment. This document neither constitutes nor forms nor should beconstructed as constituting or forming part of any offer or invitation to sell or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or to subscribe for any securities in Anglo Asian Mining PLC (“Anglo Asian Mining”) or any other body corporate or an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity under section 21 of the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 nor shall it or any part of it form the basis of or be relied on in connection with any contract therefore. This document does not constitute an invitation to effect any transaction with Anglo Asian Mining nor to make use of any services provided by Anglo Asian Mining. No reliance may be placed for any purpose whatsoever on the information contained in this document nor on assumptions made as to its completeness. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is given by Anglo Asian Mining, any of its subsidiaries or any of its respective advisers, officers, employees or agents, as to the accuracy, fairness or completeness of the information or opinions contained in this document or expressed in the presentation and, no liability is accepted for any such information or opinions (which should not be relied upon) or for any loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of this document or its contents or information expressed in the presentation. The information and opinions contained in this document and the presentation are provided as the date of this document and the presentation and are subject to change without notice. This presentation contains forward-looking statements that are based on Anglo Asian Mining's current expectations and estimates. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such difference include changes in world commodities and equity markets, political developments in Azerbaijan, changes to regulations affecting Anglo Asian Mining's activities and other risks involved in the mining industry. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and Anglo Asian Mining disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and, accordingly, undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. This presentation has been prepared in compliance with English law and English courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes arising from or connected with this presentation.

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Azerbaijan Geography

*Gedabek

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Flow diagram of the ore processing facilities at Gedabek

Gedabek Open Pit Mine

Grinding Leach Thickener

Agitation Leach Plant

Resin-in- Pulp

Tailings Thickener

SART ADR PLS Pond

BLS Pond

Heap Leach

TMF

U/F

O/F

High Grade Ore

Low Grade Ore

Loaded Resin

O/F

U/F

Eluted Resin

Cu/Ag Sulphide Conc.

Gold Doré

Tailings slurry Return water

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Gedabek Process Plant

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Typical Process Solution Compositions

•  Copper - 500 – 1000 mg/L •  Gold - 0 - 0.25 mg/L •  Silver - 1.0 mg/L •  Cyanide - WAD CN 600 - 1200 mg/L

Free CN 0 - 100 mg/L •  Calcium - 600 mg/L •  Sulphate - 2000 mg/L

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Flow diagram for the pilot plant tests

Process water

Process water

This report details the findings from the pilot plant trial.

2. PROCESS DESCRIPTION

A bleed stream of the tailings dam return water was fed to the plant as illustrated in the block flow diagram (Figure 2) and described below.

Block flow diagram of AIMC pilot plant

The tailings dam return water was fed to an Ultra-Filtration (UF) plant to remove suspended solids. The UF membrane was backwashed at pre-determined intervals to flush solids from the UF membrane. Clarified solution from the UF plant was collected in a RO feed buffer tank (1m3 isotainer) and fed by gravity to the RO plant feed tank.

Anti-scalant was dosed at a pre-determined rate to the RO feed tank. Solution from the RO feed tank was pumped to the RO membrane. Permeate was collected in a RO permeate holding tank. A portion of the RO concentrate was recycled to the RO plant feed tank, whilst a bleed stream was removed depending on the permeate-to-concentrate ratio evaluated.

Figure 3 and Figure 4 show pictures of the UF and RO plants respectively.

TailingsDamReturnWater

UFPLANT

ROPlantFeedBufferTank

ROPlantFeedTank

ROPLANT

ROPermeate

ROConcentrate

SuspendedSolids

Anti-scalant

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Results from pilot plant tests

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Flow diagram of the industrial UF/RO plant

Process water

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Gedabek Process Plant

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Blank

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Blank

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Blank

Sand Filters

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Blank Ultrafiltration Modules

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Blank Reverse Osmosis Modules

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Blank

RO Feed Pumps

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Mean results from the industrial UF/RO plant (May 2018)

Average clean water output: 400m3/day

* The CN is free cyanide in all cases except for Final output which is the sum of Free + WAD cyanide

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UF/RO Water Treatment Plant Cost Data

Data for May 2018 Power consumption (month) = 67000 kwh Power cost (month) = 5140 AZN (USD 1 = 1.7 AZN) Clean water production (month) = 12500 m3 (403 m3/day) Power consumption = 5 kwh/m3

Unit cost = 0.41 AZN/m3 = 24 cents US/m3

c.f. Transported water from river (free at source); delivered cost 2.5 AZN/m3

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Conclusions •  Laboratory and pilot plant tests showed that a combination of ultrafiltration

and reverse osmosis can be used to produce clean water from cyanide leach solutions that are saturated with calcium and contain up to at least one gram per litre of copper.

•  An industrial-scale UF/RO plant has been built based on these test results that is designed to produce up to 60 m3/h of clean water.

•  The performance of the industrial plant is as good as, if not better than, the test work results.

•  The anti-scalant has performed as intended and has prevented fouling of the RO membranes, in spite of the high calcium content of the input solutions.