TAILINGS: Testing of Metso’s VPX filter for tailings dewatering starts in Brazil

[caption id="attachment_1003735386" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Metso VPX filter Credit: Metso[/caption] BRAZIL – Last year, Metso launched its Tailings Management Solutions (TMS) offering to help tackle the challenge of managing mine tailings efficiently. The company views the dewatering of this waste material as the future for the industry, with the water content removed and either reused within the process plant or returned back to the environment. At Metso's facilities in Sorocaba in Brazil, the first full-scale tests of the Metso VPX filter started in March. This unit will process ore samples sent in from several mining companies in Brazil and Latin America. “This is not a laboratory test, but filtration in industrial scale conditions using VPX technology, which has the capacity to process high volumes of ores,” Rodrigo Gouveia, Metso’s VP of tailings management systems, said in a release. “Tailings dewatering is technically and economically a viable option for today and the future. Dry stacking is widely acknowledged to be the safest, most sustainable option for tailings storage. We see that there is a strong demand for short- and medium-term technical solutions.” Fausto Rezende, the company’s mining equipment sales director, who is also in charge of TMS in Brazil, added legacy dams also highlight potential uses for these new technologies. “We can develop projects for the dredging and concentration of the tailings and, in many cases, it is possible that this operation is more economically viable than virgin ore,” he concluded. With a strong expertise in dewatering solutions, Metso moves the mining industry towards dry tailings and addresses the closure of legacy dams with socially responsible and economically proven solutions. Depending on the mining application and its needs, the company carries out engineering work and determines specifications for the optimal dewatering technology, which may include lamellar thickeners, hydrocyclones and filters and tailings stackers, through to pumping solutions and conveyor belts. For more information, visit www.Metso.com/products/filters/vpx-filter.