Joining the global effort: TAKRAF Group champions water conservation on World Water Day through DELKOR technologies

TAKRAF Group joins the global community today (22 March 2024) in observing World Water Day and acknowledges the crucial role it must continue to play in supporting the mining industry to protect our most precious resource. 

Through our DELKOR liquid/solid separation range of equipment, we supply mine owners and operators around the world with technologies that enable the optimum recovery and recycling of water to reduce fresh intake into an operation. In particular, our DELKOR Thickener (THK), DELKOR Horizontal Belt Filter (HBF) and DELKOR Filter Press (FP) technologies  support the conservation of water and environmental sustainability in the management and dewatering of tailings. As dewatered tailings can either be used as mine backfill or sent straight to the dry stack tailings impoundment, DELKOR technologies contribute to a technically viable and economically feasible solution for handling process plant tailings in the safest and most environmentally-friendly manner.

With more than 1,050 DELKOR Thickener & Clarifier installations globally, stakeholders are experiencing the benefits of significantly enhanced water recovery, in addition to low capital costs, a smaller footprint, effective use of flocculants and advanced automation.

Similarly, more than 950 Horizontal Bell Filters (HBFs) have been installed by DELKOR to date, resulting in approximately 4.4 TMC (124,594.14 million litres) of water being conserved annually and minimizing the freshwater requirement proportionately. Such high-capacity dewatering filters have been applied in sizes from 0.25 m2 to the world’s largest at 162 m2, over a range of commodities from iron ore to phosphates, copper, gold and uranium. 

The significant savings in water usage from the application of our DELKOR technologies is evident in a selection of the following global installations, including: 

•  An iron ore mine in India recycles as much as 1.4 TMC (39,643.59 million litres) of water annually back into the system, following the installation of 60 DELKOR HBFs, in various sizes of up to 162 m2. 
• The replacement of 3 x 120 m diameter conventional thickeners with a single 40 m diameter DELKOR Paste Thickener to handle phosphate tailings in Senegal enabled maximum water recovery (85- 89%) to be achieved. It also increased the life of the tailings dam by producing the highest achievable underflow density. 
• Some 6.5 TMC (184,059.53 million litres) of water is being recovered annually in an iron ore application where a 62 m diameter DELKOR High-Rate Thickener (HRT) handles a slurry flow rate of 25,000 m3/h to recover 97% of the water for plant reuse. 
• A copper mine in India is utilizing both a DELKOR HRT and HBF in a system that dewaters copper tailings for use as paste for backfilling the mined-out areas, with the recovered water being re-used in the plant. As a result of the installation of the  two 145 m2 HBFs and 22 m diameter HRT, the environmental impact of a tailings pond has been obviated, while approximately 0.3 TMC (8,495.0055 million litres) of water is saved annually.

“As the theme of this year’s World Water Day, Leveraging Water for Peace, acknowledges the critical role water plays in global stability and prosperity,” says Indu Bhushan Jha, DELKOR Managing Director. “We are therefore proud to assist our clients, in line with our Zero Harm approach, to overcome the most complicated challenges in transforming the resource industry towards an environmentally sustainable and peaceful future.” 

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