As pressure mounts on miners to cut emissions and conserve water while increasing production, global mining technology company Weir asserts that the use of smarter technology and re‑engineered flowsheets helps drive sustainable mining.

Weir regional engineering director: EMEA Christian Stehle explains that providing technology for a sustainable future is essential. “[That] plays out in four main areas: energy, water, waste and digital, all underpinned by a strong safety culture,” he states.

The company says that the sustainability challenge is most acute in the area of comminution, regarded as the ‘energy‑hungry heart’ of most mines. The company notes that it is promoting the redesign of the entire circuit where possible.

“At Weir, we are promoting ‘non‑traditional’ flowsheets built around high-pressure grinding rolls, large ENDURON vibrating screens, coarse particle flotation and stirred mills to cut back on conventional tumbling mills. If you can do that in your flowsheet, then you use less water and significantly less energy compared to tumbling mills,” Stehle explains.

The company conducted a study that it says highlights a significant opportunity to reduce energy use and emissions in comminution by leveraging alternative technology combinations which was independently assured by SLR Consulting. Stehle adds: “The study demonstrated that replacing conventional technology with innovative new solutions can reduce energy use by 40% while also avoiding 50% of CO₂-equivalent emissions.”  

Focussing on sustainable water management, Stehle highlights solutions that change how tailings are handled and notes that the company’s new CAVEX CVD hydrocyclone range enables more efficient separation and classification, helping to reduce recirculating loads and unnecessary re‑grinding, lowering both energy and water use.

“[We] have developed the Terraflowing dewatering solution which enables discrete tailings fractions to be handled in such a way as to produce an engineered paste product. By separating the tailings stream into discrete fractions, operators can handle them in different ways, providing a higher level of flexibility in the way they dewater their tailings, while still having a consistent end product.”

Extending the life of wear parts is another important sustainability lever, adds Stehle: “If you can make your parts last longer, that in and of itself is also a sustainability improvement, because you are using fewer resources to make new parts. Also, there’s a commercial advantage for the customers because their equipment runs longer with less downtime.”

In addition, Weir notes that it has made a number of digital technology acquisitions including Motion Metrics, Micromine and Fast2Mine which it says will focus on software and data solutions from pit to plant.