WATER MANAGEMENT
Moving mining with
MOBILE WATER TREATMENT Flexible and modular, plug-and-play mobile systems offer access to cutting-edge water treatment without stumping up the capital cost. By David Oliphant
F
or mining operations, effective water treatment is about more than meeting regulatory requirements and maintaining a social licence to operate. Choosing the right approach to water treatment can have a profound impact on a mine business. One increasingly attractive option for mining companies is the deployment of mobile water treatment technologies. Mobile water treatment technologies are pre-packaged on a trailer, skid or container allowing both highly mobile treatment and rapid deployment. Mobile assets are typically pre-engineered with ‘plug-and-play’ connections, making transport to even remote sites relatively straightforward and allowing ease of installation. Veolia’s Mobile Water Services, for example, offer an alternative to fixed plants for a wide range of mining and other industrial applications with flow rates of anything from 1 cubic metre/hour to 500 cubic metres/hour. Available as standardized modular systems, higher flow rates are easily achieved by adding further units.
24 | CANADIAN
MINING JOURNAL
Often considered as a temporary or emergency solution where an existing plant has failed, mobile assets are also ideally suited to use during planned commissioning, refurbishment or maintenance projects and even for longer-term water treatment requirements, such as during decommissioning and site remediation. A wide range of treatment options are available, too. Processes including clarification, filtration, deionization, demineralization/ softening and metals removal are all possible from a mobile platform. For the mining sector, removal of metals and other materials that are toxic to aquatic life down to parts per billion levels are typically required as part of the regulatory process. Cutting capital costs For the junior mining sector in particular, one of the perennial challenges is the provision of capital. The nature of such a business means that when raising capital in the marketplace there is a strong focus on securing funding for revenue-generating equipment used in ore processing within the mill. With the focus of www.canadianminingjournal.com
