Hydrometallurgical piloting

Hydrometallurgical piloting services

All of the hydrometallurgical services outlined in the benchscale sections can be completed at pilot scale with continuous operation. As mentioned above, and assuming the requisite technical acumen, the real test of successful hydrometallurgical piloting is achieved by bringing together the following factors:

• Competent risk/hazard assessment and all aspects of health safety and environment (HSE). Combine acidic/corrosive solutions with high pressure and temperature and the risks to personnel and equipment rise exponentially. With ever more stringent mandatory ESG guidelines enforced by government and industry regulatory authorities, clients require a service provider they can sign off on to complete hazardous testing. With our commitment to HSE and quality, ALS is that service provider.
• Requisite associated mineral processing piloting capability to prepare samples and deliver the required hydrometallurgical plant feed in sufficient quantities.
• Required equipment schedule of major items such as atmospheric leaching vessels and continuous autoclaves.
• Correct sizing of leaching vessels, pumps and pipework with the necessary experience to source and fabricate non-standard sizes via external vendors.
• Correct selection of materials of construction. Hydrometallurgical testwork is inherently corrosive, which can cause catastrophic failure of equipment and plant infrastructure fabricated in an incorrect choice of materials. Unforeseen failures cause delays and downtime, which cost time and money. Make the right choice with ALS in advance to avoid these issues when possible.
• Plant set-up and construction expertise. All of the above factors need to eventuate into a physical operating plant and the construction and set-up phase of a hydrometallurgical pilot program is as important as the subsequent operation. One won't happen without the other and ALS has the knowhow and experience to construct highly complex pilot plants.
• The necessary ancillary infrastructure to support the core hydrometallurgical processing. Pilot plants do not run themselves and require specific areas equipped with: service cable trays, water lines, compressed air; steam boilers and ring-mains to deliver heat to the systems; electronical process controllers for temperature, flow, mass and pressure; chemical and reagent mixing and dosing; sample taking and monitoring equipment; gas manifolds and delivery systems; effluent and waste management; and dust and plant off gas extraction and scrubbing.
• In-house assay facility. Pilot plants generate lots of samples that need quick processing and analyzing to deliver the data to enable plant control and decision making. There is not the time to outsource these samples to an external laboratory. ALS has its own analytical facility on site in Balcatta to handle all pilot sampling requirements.
• Data handling. Along with those samples comes reams of data that needs collating and analysis into a coherent database for mass balancing and reporting requirements. ALS has the requisite data handling and IT systems to process the large volumes of plant data in timely fashion.

Hydrometallurgical piloting is complex and challenging but at ALS we consider it one of our strongest fortes and done right, well, it can be a lot of fun!

Don't see what you need or are unsure about some of the services and associated requirements?

Hydrometallurgical testwork is always complex, and so we are happy to help walk you through the process, or meet your requirements exactly.

Please contact us for further details.

Associated testwork services

Electrowinning rarely happens in isolation and typically many other processes are inter-related, leaching, CCD, filtration, recycles, impurity removal, purification etc.

Click on the above links or contact us for further information. We can integrate a full program for you if required.