The client recovers barite from tailings produced by a historic zinc mine and supplies it to onshore and offshore oil markets as drilling mud. In 2020, Halyard completed several process plant upgrades including the addition of a screening system for dry tailings feed, modification of the flotation circuit, addition of a gravity circuit, and improvements to the existing electrical, instrumentation, and piping systems. These changes improved the barite recovery rate and capture of gold.
The new equipment had to be installed on historic tailings that had poor founding conditions, consequently helical pies were used. This avoided the need for traditional excavation and backfill. The piles were finished with a 300 mm thick reinforced concrete slab on surface.
In spite of the complexity of the foundation requirements, the engineering and design was completed on scheduled and the civil works construction, managed by Halyard, was completed within 2 weeks of site establishment.