The slurry transport of material from the field to the washer is one of the largest processes to occur in mining and certainly, the most power intensive. Control of this process hinges around knowledge of the volumetric flow; is the volume enough to keep the solids from settling, or too high and wasting energy moving excess water? Currently, most of the reliable information on flow is from in-line magnetic flux meters located at the end of the slurry lines. Meter failure requires costly down time while the line is broken for installation of the replacement, or that the operations run blind until repairs can be scheduled.
While researching new technology for the ONA mine, Mosaic found CiDRA Minerals Processing, Inc. offering an alternative reliable non-invasive flow monitoring system with the ability to program for detection of bed settling, air entrainment, and pipeline leaks. This paper covers Mosaic’s extensive acceptance testing of the CiDRA SONARtrac® Model VF-100 volumetric flow monitoring system and the technology involved.