Australian company Hawk Measurement has been chosen to optimise all the thickeners at the Pueblo Viejo gold project in the Dominican Republic, using the company’s Orca Sonar system.
Pueblo Viejo is one of the largest undeveloped gold assets in the world. The mine life is expected to be over 25 years.
Hawk’s Orca Sonar system will control the operation of all thickeners at the Pueblo Viejo gold mine project, by controlling bed level and monitoring the hindered/interface layer to maximise efficiency and performance by monitoring real time settling conditions.
This reduces the overall chemical costs and will also reduce the electricity costs on returning water from tailings dams by pumping optimised tailings bed densities, according to Hawk.
The Orca Sonar systems are based on fourth-generation sonar technology. The transducers selected for this application will be high powered, three crystal array versions, and will require special materials for high temperature operation and chemical resistance.
The Orca bed level transmitters are being supplied with Foundation Fieldbus protocol for this project.
The Orca system has been designed to be user-friendly and reliable, with simple calibration and setup, according to Hawk.