Project Description

The project of increasing the capacity of tailing thickeners, which can be referred to as increasing the dewatering capacity of dry tailings, in order to supply the required water, to increase the capacity of the 2^nd phase of concentrator expansion and to increase the capacity of water recovery and treatment to over 75% in Sarcheshmeh Copper Plant.

Carrying out mineral concentration processes requires abundant water consumption. Due to the scarcity of water resources and in order to reduce the environmental and financial costs associated with the permanent supply of water, some equipment is used in mining plants to recycle the water used in the process and return it to the cycle of production. One of the most important of these devices are tailing thickeners that are responsible for recovering the water in the waste slurry.

Prior to the start of the project to increase the dewatering of tailing thickeners, 4 tailing thickeners with a diameter of 120 meters were working in Sarcheshmeh Copper Plant three of which with a dewatering capacity of  550 tons of dry tailings per hour were launched by Parsons Jordan company and the fourth thickener with the capacity of 1100 tons was built and put into operation to supply water to phase one of the concentrator expansion.

In this project, ANIN Solid Mechanical Engineers Company was responsible for consultancy and supreme workshop supervision. The project started in 2009 and ended at the expected time. The executive operation ended in 2010 and the dewatering of the thickener was launched. The commissioning and operation of the project took place in the early days of 2011.

It was at this stage of the project that the construction of the third phase of the development of concentrator expansion in Sarcheshmeh Copper Plant began. In order to supply the water required for this phase of concentrator expansion, arrangements had to be made. The first and simplest solution that came to the client’s mind was to build the sixth thickener. The cost of this work was estimated at about $ 30 million.

At this stage, the ANIN Co. changed the course of the project with a new proposal. It was suggested that the capacity of the three old tailing thickeners be increased and that new technology be used to further dewater the thickeners. Many technical and economic studies were carried out in this regard, which according to studies, the cost of the project was estimated at less than 7 million euros.

Initially, it was decided to carry out the executive operation in the case of one of the thickeners (thickener No. 3) and, considering the successful completion of thickener 5, to entrust it to the existing contractor. All operations were performed again and all devices were updated. Complex issues related to the use of existing equipment to perform a new task were resolved in collaboration with other parties of the project. Some distortions and misunderstandings were eliminated by using new management methods and finally in 1393 the project was successfully completed and the capacity of thickener 3 increased to 1160 tons of dry tailings per hour.

Initially, it was decided to carry out the executive operation in the case of one of the thickeners (thickener No. 3) and, considering the successful completion of thickener 5, to entrust it to the existing contractor. All operations were performed again and all devices were updated. Complex issues related to the use of existing equipment to perform a new task were resolved in collaboration with other parties of the project. Some distortions and misunderstandings were eliminated by using new management methods and finally in 1393 the project was successfully completed and the capacity of thickener 3 increased to 1160 tons of dry tailings per hour.

From the beginning of this project, the decision makers in ANIN Co. decided to use Agile methodology, and this methodology was used until the end of the project , which led to the completion of all executive operations. Doing so led to a project that was expected to take 36 months to complete in just 19 months. Subsequently, all executive measures were taken at this stage and the project was fully submitted in November 2018.

After the completion of the project, the dewatering capacity of tailing thickeners in the Sarcheshmeh Copper Plant was doubled, while we were able to complete the project (in two phases) at a cost of nearly 60% of the estimated cost.