Pumps & Systems, September 2008
Mercator Mineral Ltd. officials needed to expand and streamline a freshwater supply system for an expansion of Mineral Park Mine, its wholly owned open-pit copper and molybdenum mine near Kingman, Ariz. For this water supply system, they needed an energy-efficient solution that integrated key controls within a network of multiple pump stations.
The freshwater pumping system involves pumping from a well field to the mine approximately 20 miles away. An existing water system delivered less water than required, so plans were established to expand and upgrade the existing system. The total flow rate of 4000-gpm delivered to the mine in the first phase was limited by the use of an existing 15.25-in diameter pipeline, which is being reused. Two existing pump stations are being completely refurbished while two additional pump stations are being constructed. Once the water is delivered to the mine, a series of additional pump stations under construction will deliver fresh, reclaim and process water to the plant for production purposes. The new system also had to integrate with an expanded 50,000-ton per day concentrator mill facility designed to ultimately produce more than 56 million pounds of copper and 10.4 million pounds of molybdenum in concentrates annually.
The water pumping system project includes the supply of multiple pump stations with ITT Goulds vertical turbine can pumps, U.S. Electric 450-hp and 500-hp motors, 46 ITT PumpSmartTM variable frequency drives and ITT Flowtronex pre-engineered buildings housing the electrical components.
The large horsepower VFD packages offer major efficiency savings and operational flexibility for the mine's estimated 25-year life. In addition, the VFD features will provide extra pump protection and the ability to communicate with the mine's central control room.
A custom radio telemetry/SCADA system was incorporated to monitor and operate the entire freshwater supply, which delivers water from the well field to the mine approximately 20 miles away. The complete freshwater system-including the five well sites, four booster stations, two control rooms, one repeater station and three additional pump stations located on the mine property-communicates via a SCADA system. The entire SCADA system is wireless, using radio communications and advanced Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) combined with site-specific programming.
The entire instrumentation package includes magnetic flowmeters, level transducers, level switches and pressure transducers. The output from each of these devices, and specific pump and motor data, will be displayed on the SCADA system for plant operators to view.
These proposed system enhancements convinced Mercator that this approach would maximize energy savings and control integration objectives. Construction of the water system by Freidey Construction of Kingman is nearly complete and start-up of the plant is planned for the third quarter of 2008.
Mike Dwyer is the technical sales engineer for Quadna, Inc.