High Rate Clarifier

The S&P CLARIFIER is an in-house designed high rate dirty water clarifier, specifically developed for underground water treatment in gold, platinum and other base metal mines, with over 70 units installed to date. Because of its high specific throughput capacity of up to 6 litres per m2 × second (which equals 21.6m3 per m2 × h) it is widely used in mining operations for retrofitting, where existing settlers are overloaded. The S&P CLARIFIER is well received by all major mining houses in South Africa and in other countries of the African continent for new installations. A typical throughput of a 5m diameter S&P Clarifier is 115 litres of dirty water per second, or 415m3 per hour (9.95 m/day).

Retrofitting an S&P CLARIFIER into an existing underground settler excavation achieves a six times higher water clarification capacity, without any need of blasting and with only minor interruptions of the ongoing operations. In cases, where the S&P CLARIFIER is used in new installations (or extensions / deepening of shaft systems) it requires only 16 percent of the surface area of a conventional settler for doing the same job, of only 7,5 percent of the respective excavation volume. On top, the hanging roof area above the S&P CLARIFIER is of same smaller proportion, which results in even less excavation volumes and much reduced roof support requirements (Refer to Figure 1).

The S&P CLARIFIER requires no more flocculant than a conventional settler, but achieves overflow clarities of typically 10 ppm S.S. Because of its unique design features the S&P CLARIFIER maintains this overflow water quality over its full range, from zero to design throughput. The underflow sludge density is comparable to that of conventional settlers.

An additional feature of the S&P CLARIFIER is its capability to collect, and to trap in one compartment, contaminants that are lighter than water and which are fed to the clarifier with the dirty water stream, for example: oil, grease, plastics and general debris.

As the S&P CLARIFIER has no moving parts, and as it accepts any feed fluctuation over the full throughput range without adjustments, the S&P CLARIFIER is user friendly and does not need operators input. All S&P CLARIFIERS are of completely bolted design, which allows hot dip galvanizing of all components. That, in turn, permits easy transport to the underground installation sites and effortless erection. It also guarantees a long life expectancy at very low maintenance costs.

In summary, the S&P CLARIFIER is an extremely economical and useful piece of equipment for dirty water treatment in underground mining operations, with no concessions to the clear water quality and flocculant consumption. Similarly, the S&P CLARIFIER can be used with the same economy and benefits in process applications on surface.