Weir pump used in Mauritania copper mine for past 12 years
Published by Stephanie Roker,
Editor
Global Mining Review,
The Warman® AH® pump is a global market leader, suited to a wide range of applications while providing the best total operating cost. Continuously evolving, it is compatible with a range of impellers and shaft seals that can be retrofitted to create the perfect configuration to meet your needs.
To help celebrate 80 years of Warman, Weir Minerals has created the series ‘A Long Standing Pump’. Featuring pumps from around the world that have been in continuous operation for a significant number of years and undergone upgrades, it serves to highlight the AH pump’s ruggedness and versatility.
The company’s fourth pump is located in the African country of Mauritania where for the past 12 years it has been utilised in a copper mine as a hydrocylone feed pump.
The pump is owned by Mauritanian Copper Mines (MCM) and has been the backbone of their operations.
A strong preventative maintenance schedule and availability of spare parts on site has enabled the pump to operate for an extended period of time. The pump was recently upgraded to the WRT® design with A61 steel. This combined impeller and throatbush upgrade offers significant advantages including improved wear life, decreased power consumption, higher pump efficiency and lower NPSH requirements.
Additional modifications have been made on the delivery pipeline of the pump to increase its availability, including the installation of fully ceramic-lined pipes and removal of a collection box.
Weir Minerals has always been in constant communication with the site, monitoring the performance of the pump to increase the wear life and avoid unplanned downtime.
These enhancements and preventative measures have contributed significantly to the site’s output and capacity. The improvement in pump wear life and reduced number of overhauls has increased plant availability and consequently, production. The customer recently commissioned a second pump for standby, which will increase the overall availability of the plant.
Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/handling-processing/11102018/weir-pump-used-in-mauritania-copper-mine-for-past-12-years/
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