Canadian Mining Journal April 2020

Page 29

By Todd Wisdom

| DEWATERING TECHOLOGY

Tracked conveyor bridge, versatile mobile stacking technology, mobile conveyors and advance and retreat stacking. CREDIT: FLSMIDTH

Advances in tailings tech

FLSMIDTH TALKS HIGH-VOLUME DEWATERING SOLUTIONS

E

conomic growth, urbanization and growing populations are fuelling demand for new urban infrastructure, technology and modern conveniences. These factors, especially in developing economies, are lifting more and more people out of poverty and into a swelling middle class. This demographic change means hundreds of millions more people with disposable income, which in turn is fuelling consumption and placing more and more demand on the mining industry to deliver material to the market. With a concurrent move towards energy efficiency, green technology and a low-carbon future, we are seeing stronger

APRIL 2020

demand for electric cars, wind and solar energy and energy storage. Meeting these demands requires minerals, which places the mining industry at the centre of a complex conundrum. Declining ore grades, increasing environmental footprint The difficulty in delivering the minerals demanded by society while decreasing the environmental footprint is being compounded by declining ore grades. This has direct implications for the amounts of water and energy needed for production, increasing the environmental footprint of the mine. It is a challenge, but CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

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