Gai (Orenburg Region)
PJSC "Gaysky GOK" (an enterprise of the raw materials complex of UMMC) is implementing a project to reconstruct the circulating water supply system to the Processing Plant of the Combine. The reconstruction is connected with the construction of the Paste Thickening Complex, which is necessary for processing the annually growing volumes of the concentrating plant wastes and optimizing their storage.
“We plan to carry out further reclamation of open pit No. 2 with the products of the Paste Thickening Complex. As a result, the volume of water in the quarry currently used for recycling water supply will gradually decrease. The main storage tank will be a clarified water pond. Taking these factors into account, a project was developed to reconstruct the circulating water supply system, ”explains Alexey Vinokurov, chief engineer of the concentrator.
Currently, the project is building three water flow switching units, modernizing pumping equipment, and laying a third pipeline branch (from the pumping station of the clarified water pond to the water tower). In total, eight new facilities will be built and two existing ones will be reconstructed.
Let us explain that today, quarry No. 2, located on the territory of the industrial site of PJSC Gaysky GOK, is involved in the recycling water supply system of the plant. Within the framework of the open pit reclamation project, tailings are stored in its bowl - this is a slurry consisting of water and solid particles of rock that remains after ore dressing. In the quarry, additional purification of circulating water from suspended solids takes place, the residual concentration of reagents decreases. Clarified water from the quarry is pumped into the recycling water supply system of the processing plant using four floating pumping stations along two pipelines. The solid fraction of the waste gradually fills the pit bowl and is partially used for the filling complex of the underground mine. The pit capacity with the existing technology will last until the end of 2021. Further reclamation is possible only by placing a paste thickening product - paste in the pit.
In addition to the pit bowl, a pond of clarified waters serves as a reservoir for the accumulation of circulating water. The pumping station installed in the pond is currently practically not used and is connected only to maintain a normal water level in the pond.
As a result of the reconstruction of the circulating water supply system, the direction of the circulating water supply to the factory will change - it will be taken from the pond clarified water, where the capacity of the pumping equipment is planned to be increased to 5100 m 3 /h. It is planned to maneuver water flows in automatic mode.
