Tonnage
30tph
Material
Claybound Aggregates, Sand & Gravel
Output
Fine sand recovery with an efficient cut at 63um
THE CHALLENGE
Undoubtedly Australia’s largest building and construction materials supplier, Boral Limited has over the years secured its market leading position with the development of three main divisions, namely construction materials, cement and a diverse range of building products.
Alongside significant operations in USA and Asia, Boral has successfully established The Boral Construction Materials division in their domestic market with around 400 operating sites; ensuring that the construction materials division has a regional focus to serve the company’s local markets.
Situated in Moora, north of Perth, Boral Ltd, are currently on contract with a quarry operation owned by Simcoa Operations, a company committed to producing the world’s highest quality silicon from a site that has been in operation for over 20 years.
At the outset, Boral’s ultimate aim was to produce a high quality quartzite ore for use by Simcoa in their silica production process. This ore is typically 75-25mm in size, but the operation was losing a significant proportion of quality fines (0-7mm) to the waste ponds. Boral essentially wanted to implement a process whereby water could be recycled and recovered from within an extremely dry climate where water supply is limited.
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THE SOLUTION
Paul O’ Brien, Boral’s Fixed Plant Engineering Manager, began consultation process with CDE. After this initial consultation, CDE offered a design and proposal that demonstrated efficiencies in operations and huge savings in material recovery. CDE ultimately designed, manufactured and installed a system that eliminated the loss of quality fines (0-5mm) to nearby settling ponds whilst controlling water levels for reprocessing.
As a result of their operating needs, Boral invested in a CDE EvoWash™ 101 fines recovery sand plant complete with an M1508 radial stockpile conveyor and a LQPP 25 flocculant make up and dosing system.
THE RESULTS
Boral’s quarry manager at Moora, Jeff Post, highlights, “The washing equipment we invested in from CDE has allowed operations to accurately separate at 63 micron which has in turn, produced a high quality sand product with low moisture levels, whilst rapidly re-circulating water following treatment processing. We are now recovering and producing 25-30tph of quality sand with the total feed rate to the plant being 225tph. The technology has allowed us to increase efficiency by reducing the costs incurred through pond dredging to recover sand we had lost using the previous system”
The improved opportunities for the recycling of process water and reduction of fines to settling ponds have facilitated a move to production throughout the year, where previously the site was operating only over an 8 month period.
The by-products of the production process are currently sold off to third parties in the region for various uses including further processing and general aggregate use, thus ensuring that there is zero waste from the process.
