Karara iron ore tailings partnership delivers multiple benefits

International Mining | October 4, 2011 | 12:39 am Australia Europe Iron Ore 

An innovative approach to design options for tailings thickening at Karara Iron Ore Project in Western Australia has resulted in lower overall cost, reduced thickener sizes and minimized site construction time as the project moves into production. The initial 8 Mt/y project – with Karara’s known resources sufficient to support eventual production of +30 Mt/y for more than 30 years – is benefitting from a partnership between the Karara development team and Outotec staff extending from early process design stage to fabrication.

The partnership, involving an extensive testwork program, has delivered benefits including:

  • A reduction in the size of the initially selected two 58 m high-rate thickeners to a pair of considerably more economical and efficient 42 m Outotec high rate thickeners
  • Innovative thickener design, such as Outotec’s internationally patented Vane FeedwellTM which ensures optimised flocculant use and overflow clarity
  • Effective reuse of plant water – limit 500 ppm suspended solids in thickener overflow
  • Minimised on-site construction time with a bolted tank design that is a better overall value proposition and significantly reduces site work.

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