December 24, 2021
Maintaining Water Quality in Desert Mine
A mine site expansion for the second largest gold mine in Australia has led to the construction of an additional wastewater treatment plant that could process 125,000 litres of wastewater a day.
Coerco Poly Tanks Stand Test of Time
The Tanami Gold Mine project, which is based in the Northern Territory, engaged ABCO Water Systems to design and construct the supporting infrastructure for its mine site expansion. ABCO chose Coerco as its go-to company for high-quality liquid process tank products and Turkish-based company Planet-tek for its Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) technology.
The additional treatment plant was formed on the mine site using a range of Coerco industrial process tanks including a 50,000 litre tank, two 32,000 litre tanks, a 2,500 litre tank, and a 9,500 litre discharge water tank along with penetration attachments to connect each tank.
Water Scarcity Drives New Technology and Storage Options
ABCO Water Systems Operations Manager, Kevin Roberts said Coerco's ability to access and fit a range of attachments to the tanks and its world class warranty were critical to delivering a quality outcome for the Tanami Gold Project.
"When we first started talking to Coerco about the products we needed, we quickly discovered the range of services and custom-built options available, Mr Roberts said.
"The fact that Coerco can source and fit a range of additional attachments like pipes, pumps, access ladders and other items is a big plus for us as we then don’t have to spend time searching elsewhere for products like that.
“It takes a lot of pressure off ABCO when someone like Coerco can deal with that side of the project for us.”
Wastewater treatment is a complex and dynamic process, requiring several stages of treatment to meet Australia's strict Department of Health regulations.
"The fact that Coerco can source and fit a range of additional attachments like pipes, pumps, access ladders and other items is a big plus for us as we then don’t have to spend time searching elsewhere for products like that."
Mr Roberts said water was often a scarce resource in remote areas of Australia and having infrastructure that stored and protected that resource was invaluable.
“Water is going to become more valuable than gold soon because of the lack of water in the world...we need to look after how we treat our wastewater, he said.
"Using Coerco tanks we can actually store the water at a suitable quality so it can be reused into the environment. They have their systems in place, which makes unloading and loading on a mine site easy.
“We have confidence when we're dealing with the sales team at Coerco that the outcome is going to be a positive one. We can really relate that to our customer and then everybody is happy because each person has a positive attitude and a positive outcome."
The Tanami Gold Mine was commissioned in 1986 and has produced more than ten million ounces (Moz) of gold to date. It is owned and operated by Newmont, which is a major gold producer based in the United States. It is estimated to contain 33.2 million tonnes (Mt) of proven and probable reserves graded at 5.31g/t as of 31 December 2019.
In February 2020, the company revised the reserves and resources estimate of the mine, adding 1.5Moz of gold reserves, 1.1Moz of measured and indicated resources, and 1.6Moz of inferred resources.
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