Jun 11 2012
CiDRA Minerals Processing Inc. announced today that Southern Copper Company's Cuajone mine in Peru has awarded CiDRA a contract to supply, install, start-up and commission a 48" diameter SONARtrac flowmeter, the largest to be installed in Peru.
The system is required to measure water flow in one of the plant's principal feed lines. Including the two systems that were recently installed in a mine in Northern Chile, Cuajone becomes the second client in South America that has chosen SONARtrac technology for their large diameter water feed lines, mainly due to the growing need to monitor flow rates and thereby improve the water balance, in compliance with internal company regulations.
The recovered water comes from Cuajone's three thickeners to a reservoir near the concentrator plant. The water is then distributed for reuse in the concentrator plant through the water feed lines to mills, pumps and flotation. Four pumps feed the lines in accordance with process demands. The fundamental characteristic of being a non- intrusive system allows the installation of the 48" SONARtrac flowmeter without having to stop the process or cut the pipe, which would be required to install conventional flowmeter technologies. As a result, this will be the first time that the client will have a flow rate measurement on this 48" line.
CiDRA's SONARtrac flow technology is a new class of industrial flowmeter, utilizing measurement principles that are distinct from all other flowmeter technologies operating in the mining industry. SONARtrac non-intrusive flow monitoring systems do not make contact with the fluid and can be removed and reinstalled without process interruption when it is necessary to replace the pipe. As well, SONARtrac systems demonstrate a very stable output in the presence of a variety of ores and demonstrate superior levels of performance. This passive, sonar-based technology enables measurements of single phase and multiphase fluids, as well as slurries, with the same level of accuracy and performance.
Additional information about CiDRA can be found at www.cidra.com.
SONARtrac is a registered trademark of CiDRA.