Unveiling the world’s largest Deep Cone® Paste Thickener

With more than 140 in operation around the world, FLSmidth Minerals’ Deep Cone Paste Thickeners are ready for the next generation. A new 40-metre version is now in the final stages of construction in China – and start-up is scheduled for April this year. When completed, it will be the largest paste thickener in the world.

Paste thickener technology has seen a boom in recent years thanks to its ability to increase water recovery, lower disposal costs of tailings, and improve mineral recovery when applied in hydrometallurgical processes. With a focus on increasing plant capacity and efficiency, FLSmidth Eimco developed the Deep Cone Paste Thickener, which uses gravity sedimentation equipment to remove liquid from mineral slurry.

Reclaiming water
On average, more than 90 percent of the ore that is fed into a minerals processing plant comes out as tailings. This is waste slurry that has been through the wet process (milling, flotation or leaching) and has had all the valuable minerals removed – but still contains a significant amount of water.

FLSmidth’s Deep Cone Paste Thickeners are a cost-effective way to reclaim this water in large tonnage applications. By increasing the amount of water recovered from waste tailings, Deep Cone Paste Thickeners can boost production capacity, particularly in arid regions. And they create waste tailings with a greater concentration of solids, which reduces containment costs and results in quick deposit drying so the site can be reclaimed faster.

The largest Deep Cone Paste Thickener yet
In 2007, FLSmidth Minerals developed the largest ever Deep Cone Paste Thickener – and two are now being installed at JinYu Gold Corporation’s WuShan copper concentrator in northern China near the town of Manzhouli. With a diameter of 40 m, the paste thickeners are each designed to process 18,000 metric tons per day of copper tailings and produce 70 weight percent solids underflow. This will provide the plant with an additional 14,100 m3 per day of recovered process water – and the higher mud strength will allow the JinYu Gold Corporation to dispose of the tailings above ground, bringing down the costs of installing and maintaining a containment dam.

With all these benefits, it’s no wonder the JinYu Gold Corporation decided to think big.

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