Mining //

Case Studies

4 MLD Microfiltration + Reverse Osmosis

Water Rentals deployed rental Microfiltration and reverse osmosis units to meet urgent requirement at a Coal mine site in New South Wales to treat mine water and recycle treated water for use as process water in mining operations, while reducing mine water inventory in site storage dams. The wet season reduced the natural evaporation while adding to mine drainage and run off water, significantly altering the site water balance. Additional processing capacity on rental basis was used to complement the existing site water treatment facilities.

The 4 MLD water treatment facility that included Rental Microfiltration Plant followed by two trains of rental Reverse Osmosis systems with associated chemical dosing systems, chemical cleaning systems and auxiliary facilities such as Air Compressors was supplied within 4 weeks and made operational in two weeks from site installation.

The plant was setup as a composite facility with an advanced common control system that included Water rentals’ remote monitoring system. This allowed for regular monitoring of plant operations and plant performance, reducing site reliance on specialist operators. Frequent scheduled visits from our experienced service staff ensured the equipment was maintained pro-actively and that site tasks were completed during the service visits.

Plant operations encountered its share of technical challenges posed by incoming water quality variations and specific constituents that included

  • High Algae load (Turbidity varied from 100 – 200, occasionally spiking to 500 NTU)

  • Hydrocarbons (TPH and TRH were constantly high, forcing frequent backwashes and chemical cleans. Specialist cleaning recipe had to be immediately developed/implemented to recover membrane performance).

  • Heavy Metals (Use of speciality antiscalants to limit membrane scaling/cleaning)

Once the initial mine water treatment campaign objectives were achieved the plant was repurposed for treating a brine pond with water quality four times worse than the initial design, utilising the flexibility available in the design and hardware of the rental water treatment facility. The new rental facility operated on feed salinity ranging between 15,000 - 25,000 EC towards the objective of recovering the water for mine process use and reducing the brine pond inventory, opening the dam capacity to many more years of operation. This campaign of treating a higher salinity water source ran for a term exceeding 1 year while treating concentrated water streams from different dams.

By time demobilisation, the dam levels were reduced and optimised to levels allowing steady operation of mine site for the years ahead without the need for new capital equipment/upgrades.

The benefits of this rental solution to the client include

  • Rental Water Treatment Plant hired for the campaign treatment

  • Met the treatment objectives without associated capital expense

  • High quality assets that ensured reliable operation through the contract term

  • No surprises on operating costs

  • Constant availability of water treatment expertise that allowed active response to water quality changes and challenges

  • Expertise and support that extended to improving the operations and reliability of existing site facilities without additional costs, while training the site staff.

  • Technical and commercial flexibility to respond to evolving technical challenges and site requirements.

  • Innovative design approach that maximised the use of Rental Microfiltration and Reverse Osmosis facility, achieving what would require three different designs.

  • Single source supply of chemicals, consumables and services

Rental High Recovery RO Plant

We deployed our rental high recovery, high pressure Reverse Osmosis Plant to a coal mine site to treat high salinity water produced by their primary reverse osmosis plants and brine stored in dams. The high recovery reverse osmosis technology is ideally suited for applications requiring volume reduction in saline water ponds while providing treated water that can be used to substitute raw water sources, making it an excellent selection for a sustainable water treatment solution.

This 0.5 MLD rental solution was setup as a completely automatic facility, operating between the feed water tank and treated water discharge dams. Rental Microfiltration plant provided the pre-filtration, removing the suspended matter in the dam water sources. Subsequent rental reverse osmosis solution ensured pre-concentration of brine to 50,000 EC. The rental unit processed this brine to final concentration levels of 80,000 – 90,000 EC, consistently.

This advanced rental reverse osmosis system was pre-configured and factory tested before mobilisation, ensuring quick site commissioning that took just 3 days and worked reliably for the next 12 months.

The rental RO system consists of advanced automation and control setup for remote monitoring and support. At such elevated levels of salinity, accurate control and regular monitoring is integral to a reliable solution to avoid unnecessary and unwanted scaling challenges. The expertise of Water Rentals technical support staff ensured the plant operation remained fine-tuned and responded to the feed water fluctuations.

  • High Salinity with variations (managed through well designed control system and mechanical hardware)

  • High scaling species (Management of water chemistry and use of speciality antiscalants)

  • Cleaning (Use of speciality membrane cleaners to ensure membrane performance recovery)

The benefits of this rental solution to the client include

  • Advanced technology solution available on rental basis for the required term.

  • Met the treatment objectives without associated capital expense

  • High quality assets that ensured reliable operation through the contract term

  • No surprises on operating costs

  • Constant availability of water treatment expertise essential for operating advanced reverse osmosis solutions at saturation level chemistry.

  • Single source supply of chemicals, consumables and services

Rental DAF (Dissolved Air Flotation)

We provided a rental dissolved air flotation solution to a mining client experiencing frequent spikes in suspended solids, algae, hydrocarbons, oil and grease in their mine water, resulting into extensive downtime on their permanent Microfiltration – Reverse Osmosis facility and impacting their ability to treat the mine water. The facility has been in operation for two years and continues to provide cost-effective pre-treatment to the client’s membrane treatment facility.

We provided the initial plant in 2022 and expanded it in 2023 to a total production capacity of 2.5 MLD. The facility consists of coagulant dosing, flocculant dosing, reaction tank/mixer, DAF tanks with mechanisms, recirculation pumps, air saturation systems, air compressor and sludge disposal pumps and is automatic in operation, requiring minimal attention.

Availability of Rental DAF solutions fast tracked the implementation of a solution to issues that have plagued plant operations for some time. The feed water quality to the membrane plant has been stabilised, reducing the downtime and improving the plant production and availability. In the longer run this will reduce the membrane replacement costs on client’s plant and excessive wear and tear.

Water Rentals service team continues to support the onsite team in optimising plant dosing/operations through extreme fluctuations, that include

  • High/varying Suspended solids

  • High/varying Algae load

  • High Hydrocarbons, Oil & Grease content

The benefits of this rental DAF solution to the client include

  • Immediate deployment without requiring capex approvals and commitment

  • Met the treatment objectives reliably, improving downstream equipment performance

  • Potential to try before buying a permanent solution

  • No surprises on operating costs

  • Constant availability of water treatment expertise essential for operating dissolved air solutions with varying chemistry and loading

  • Single source supply of chemicals, consumables and services

  • Cost-effective long term solution compared to capital investment

Rental Microfiltration - Reverse Osmosis Plant

Water Rentals deployed rental Microfiltration and reverse osmosis units to meet urgent requirements at a Gold mine site in New South Wales in order to treat mine water to meet environmental discharge limits set by the regulatory body to reduce mine water inventory in the site storage dams. The wet season continued to be a challenge for the mine as it constantly added to mine drainage and run off water, increasing the dam levels that had the potential to shut down mining activities. This rental water treatment solution was selected to meet the objective of reducing the mine water inventory during the wet season to allow mining operations.

The 1.5 MLD water treatment facility that included a rental microfiltration plant followed by one train of rental reverse osmosis system with associated chemical dosing systems and chemical cleaning systems was supplied within 4 weeks and made operational in one week from site installation.

The plant was set up as a composite facility with an advanced common control system that included Water Rentals’ remote monitoring system. This allowed regular monitoring of plant operations and plant performance reducing site reliance on specialist operators. Technical training and online support was provided to the site operators to ensure stable operation through the deployment term.

The versatile plant design allowed us to respond to and manage the feed water quality variations across various dams, including

  • High Algae load, particularly micro algae and blue green algae (Lower flux operation, modified backwashes and chemical cleans)

  • Heavy metals (Use of speciality antiscalants to limit membrane scaling/cleaning and plant recovery management)

  • Strict treated water requirements (managed through modified flux and preferential permeate collection for discharge)

  • Lower temperatures (temperature sensitive steps modified/delayed to appropriate time of the day)

The rental water treatment plant operated reliably throughout the contracted term proving its versatility. Our remote monitoring system ensured rapid response to variations while supporting and training the site operations.

The benefits of this rental solution to the client include

  • Rental Water Treatment solution : ideally suited for the campaign treatment, especially in mine proving phase

  • Met the treatment objectives without the associated capital expenditure

  • High quality assets that ensured versatile and reliable operation through the contract term

  • No surprises on operating costs

  • Constant availability of water treatment expertise that allowed active response to water quality changes and challenges

  • Technical and commercial flexibility to respond to evolving technical challenges and site requirements

  • Single source supply of chemicals, consumables and services