Copper Mining
Copper is one of the most important metals in the world today. It’s malleable, possesses a high level of electrical and thermal conductivity and is extremely heat responsive. The metal is becoming more valuable in a copper-intensive global economy which relies heavily on its use for electricity. Fraser-Lever is expert in copper processing plant design and is actively working on Australian and PNG mining sites to introduce tailored solutions that deliver unmatched high productivity and cost-efficiencies.
Copper Processing Plant Design
Fraser-Lever has a multidisciplinary team that specialises in process plant design and optimisation to ensure the commissioning of safe and constructible designs to drive productivity and performance for our clients.
Case Study – Ok Tedi Papua New Guinea
Ok Tedi processes around 70,000 tonnes of ore per day. The regrind circuit handles 2000 tph.
Fraser-Lever undertook the process and engineering design for the gravity circuit to produce a 99% copper / 1% gold concentrate including dewatering, drying, blending and packing for shipping.
The gravity gold circuit produces around 2 tonnes of contained gold per year out of total gold production (contained in the copper concentrates) of 18 tonnes to 20 tonnes per year.
The concentrate drying and packing facility contains a number of one-off equipment designs as no ‘off the shelf’ equipment exists for the application of dewatering, drying, blending and packing the concentrates.
The work involved:
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Engineering, procurement and construction management for the conversion of two off 50-metre-diameter thickeners to high-rate thickeners for the separation of acid producing pyrite tailings.
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Additional works included redesign of the reagent storage and dosing facility and the conversion of CIL tanks to agitated storage tanks for pyrite tailings and works associated with 130 km tailings pipeline.
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Engineering, procurement and construction management of a sub-aqueous pyrite tailings disposal system to distribute tailings evenly over the containment dam.
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Engineering, procurement and construction management for the installation of 2 off Metso VPA vertical plate pressure filters for dewatering of around 750,000 tonnes of copper concentrate per year.
