WEC Projects has a long history servicing the mining sector, with its core business for many years focusing on packaged water and sewage treatment plants. Graham Hartlett, sales director, discusses how the benefits of this experience translate directly into cost savings for clients.

 

What is WEC’s history and experience in the mining industry?

GH  Our sewage treatment plants have been installed at mines all over Africa, and we have even completed a packaged sewage treatment plant project on a mine in Australia. This breadth of experience demonstrates WEC Projects’ excellence in packaged treatment plant engineering as well as the reach of our reputation.

The plants themselves are easy to transport, with all tanks and modules designed to fit easily on flatbed trucks. This enables us to transport a >350 kℓ/day sewage treatment plant by road – significantly reducing our on-site installation time as we don’t build on-site. Another way in which our plants are flexible and ideal for remote sites is our extensive use of shipping containers, either for housing the entire plant, or providing a weatherproof, lockable and durable plant room.

Moreover, the mining environment is an exciting challenge for WEC Projects because water is such an integral part of the mining process. Mining is highly dependent on water for various reasons, including the provision of drinking water for the staff, providing sanitation infrastructure and the treatment of process water.

WEC Projects has designed and installed hundreds of packaged treatment plants over the last decade and, as expert suppliers of packaged treatment plants, we have the capacity to cater for all sizes and treated water qualities. Each plant is designed according to the client’s requirements and based on the quality of the site’s raw water.

While some of these process water applications can be tricky, WEC Projects’ enviable design and engineering team can overcome virtually any challenge through the incorporation of robust and consistently reliable technologies.

 

What are some of the most popular services required by mining clients and why?

It’s vital that a mining community has access to clean and high-quality drinking water. Also, it’s important to be aware of the impact we have on the environment and this makes sanitation infrastructure (including sewage treatment, process water recycling and wastewater treatment for discharge) a key service.

Clean drinking water supplied by our treatment plants is typically sourced from ground- or surface-water sources, which have very different characteristics and require discrete treatment approaches. Again, this is another area in which our flexibility and experience prove invaluable.

Wash water from the vehicle service areas and gland service water are also popular for treatment and reuse applications. Worth remembering, too, is that many mines operate in water-scarce environments and therefore the treatment and reuse of water is of the utmost importance.

Regarding acid mine drainage, we can also treat for the mitigation and prevention of environmental degradation.

 

Given the effect of economic challenges on the commodities sector, what is the value proposition for mining companies to manage their water?

Lowering one’s production costs in any business is important and particularly so in tough economic times. In spite of this, water reuse remains critical. Fortunately, it can also represent an opportunity to add value to the business. By implementing a treatment and reuse philosophy, mines can save on water transfer costs through, for example, the use of treated sewage effluent for irrigation purposes, or supplementing process water requirements (application dependent).

Moreover, a water treatment plant should be an asset to a mining operation and WEC Projects’ experience helps us to ensure that what the client purchases is an asset.

 

WEC Projects has made a name for itself as a leader in the municipal water sector. Do you have any solutions for the mining sector that typify WEC’s reputation for excellence?

Our packaged plant offering has been developed in the mining sector where equipment specifications are extremely high. As a result, we now have a product perfectly suited to this environment.

What makes our treatment systems unique is that they are capable of growing a given mine. This is valuable because a mining site will typically start off small, experience an enormous increase in population on-site during the construction phase, and then plateau for the operational phase. This dynamic environment requires equally dynamic treatment solutions. Our modular technology is the perfect match.

Again, our vast experience means that our treatment systems are – to a certain extent – “pre-engineered”. We, therefore, have a solid base to customise the treatment plant, without having to revert back to the drawing board for each new installation. As an added plus, being able to draw on ingrained institutional knowledge accelerates our lead times.

Also, since we do not have a predisposition towards any specific technology, we are in the ideal position to select the appropriate technology for a given mine, translating savings from this process directly to the client.

Basically, whatever will work best in that situation is what we will propose, design, supply, install and, in some cases, operate.

Additionally, our engineering, procurement and construction capabilities enable us to provide turnkey solutions for the mining industry’s water requirements.

 

Why will WEC be exhibiting at Electra Mining 2016 this year and can the market expect any new product launches or supply innovations?

The mining sector remains a crucial market for WEC Projects. We will continue to add value to our clients in mining through innovative thinking and well-engineered solutions. The Electra Mining exhibition is a fantastic channel for us to engage with our clients in this sector.

Moreover, WEC Projects has an extensive network that we enjoying engaging with. Electra Mining gives us the ideal platform to show that we value the excellent relationships we have with our clients.

Collocated with Electra Mining is Powerex, which also provides us at WEC Projects with the opportunity to showcase our capabilities in the renewable energy space as leaders in biogas-to-energy solutions. We are looking forward to sharing that expertise too.

 

Can you describe a successful past project where you assisted a mining client manage its environmental performance?

There are quite a few projects where our capabilities have really shone. One that stands out in particular is a 180 kℓ/h process water treatment plant we designed, supplied and installed a for a major coal miner in Tete, Mozambique, with the primary process being reverse osmosis.

The plant treats process water for reuse and included chemical pretreatment – clarification using WEC Projects’ proprietary lamella settlers. These increase plant clarification by up to four times compared with that of conventional clarifiers, which is one of the main reasons the project delivered enhanced environmental performance. Another contributing factor was our installation of ultrafiltration ahead of the reverse osmosis unit.