For gold mine operators, unearthing value is done every day. Water plays a key role in many of the applications. It is also a valuable resource that must be used and re-used efficiently. Kemira’s line of mining products combined with the company’s application expertise can help you do just that. Kemira offers a broad range of chemistries that are widely used in the processing of all types of gold ores. Kemira’s expertise in water quality and quantity management enables us to add value to these water-intensive processes.
One example of this is an extensive line of scale-control products. Scale build-up, for instance in the heap leach distribution system, is often an unseen problem that can block pipework and nozzles, causing significant decreases in productivity if they are not managed properly. Kemira’s wide range of KemGuard® chemistries can help prevent this scaling problem. The KemGuard 5000m series offers a unique polycarboxylate chemistry that is highly effective at controlling calcium sulphate and calcium carbonate under a wide range of pH conditions. These inhibitors include very effective dispersants and crystal nucleation retarders, proven effective in gold operations in high pH/cyanide conditions.
Proper solid-liquid separation is key to increased production rates, and Kemira shines here as well with Superfloc® flocculants. Superfloc products have been effective in water-intensive gold mining applications for many years. Flocculants are commonly used in both flotation and leaching operations for pre- and post-leach thickening, counter current decantation (CCD), paste and tails thickening duties. Kemira offers a full range of anionic, nonionic, and cationic products to ensure the correct product charge both with and without lime addition. Additionally the Superfloc portfolio, featuring a wide range of molecular weights, is ideal for high-rate, ultra-high rate and paste thickeners. The high molecular weight cationic flocculants are ideally suited for Biox CCD circuits.
Along with the Superfloc products, Kemira is a major manufacturer of both organic and inorganic coagulants. These are particularly relevant in gold-processing for waste water clarification as well as arsenic-, selenium- and heavy metals-removal processes.
Kemira offers an even broader array of solutions to improve customers’ processes including defoamers to control foam in concentrate thickeners and BIOX leach tanks. In Europe and Africa, Kemira supplies hydrogen peroxide used to manage the oxidation potential within CIL/CIP circuits and for cyanide destruction circuits. Kemira is a major producer of H2O2 in Europe with plants in Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The product can be supplied as 60% or 70% solution in bulk tankers or IBCs.
Kemira Oil & Mining offers a large selection of innovative chemical extraction and process solutions for the oil and mining industries, where water plays a central role. Utilizing our expertise, we enable our customers to improve efficiency and productivity.