Saraji coal mine has been a well known coal mine in Queensland, Australia. In the year 2008, New Hope Corporation entered into a deal with BHP (Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance) to hand over its new Saraji coal project for $2.45 billion cash. It is one of the largest coal mines in Australia. It produces high grade coking coal. The production exceeds 5mt of coal every year. The coal is used in the country and exported also. After the acquisition, BHP is constantly working to improve the efficiency of the Saraji coal mine. Neil Jagger and his company have been given the responsibility to install the Supaflo thickener for the project.
The thickener is estimated to reduce the cost of production drastically. It will reduce the energy consumption in this project as well. According to Neil Jagger, Supaflo is expected to reduce the cost up to three times. Traditionally, a magnetite clarifier was being used instead of the Supaflo thickener. After examining the advantages of this flotation thickener, the company had decided to invest its money. This new agreement helped the Saraji mines to save millions of dollars. It was expected to consume less energy. The technique is eco friendly. It is a complete package full of advantages.
The thickener took a mere time of 14 days to get installed and was completely ready to work at full pace. The low installation cost reduced the burden on the client. There was no disruption in the production since Supaflo thickeners have been installed. The expert team of Neil Jagger expects the same performance in the future.
According to Jason King who is the Outokumpu Technology Customer Support Manager, the clients are delighted with their service. He also adds that this new project will bring a new revolution to the Saraji coal mines in future also. This new 35m high thickener was installed in the year 2004. A new feed well is also being used by the thickener. Researches were being conducted with the latest technology of “Computation Fluid Dynamics”. The main motive of BHP was to reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of the mines. This is what Neil Jagger’s new invention aims at. The engineers of Neil Jagger have been carefully monitoring the results after the installation and found the following changes.
The new Supaflo thickener is saving several million dollars for the clients. The cost in installation and working of the thickener is very less compared to the traditional magnetite clarifier. The de watering technique has been very successful. It has increased the solids from 20-25% to over 35%. This means that the filtration has been improved. There is absolutely no disruption and failure after the new thickeners had been installed. The production was back to normal. The work is being done at a greater pace after Neil Jagger and his company took over the project. The project has completed the two stages and is expected to work with the same speed and efficiency.
Neil Jagger is expecting greater customer satisfaction with their new technology and expert advice. Saraji project is going to be a huge success.
Comments on this entry are closed.