The Problem
The Sabodala Mining Group operates the Sabodala Gold Mine. The mine is located in eastern Senegal which is around 650 km from the country’s coastal capital city of Dakar. A mix of oxide, transitional and primary ore types are recovered by open cut methods and then processed in a conventional crush-grind-cyanide leach circuit.
Their existing processing facility was originally designed for a throughput of 2.0 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) and included room for possible future expansions. The facility was actually performing above this design capacity with tonnages reaching close to 2.4 Mtpa. The Sabodala Mining Group decided to further expand to achieve the equivalent of 200,000 ounces of gold production per annum, which meant processing up to 4.0 Mtpa of ore.
Solution
Luehr received the contract from the project managers Lycopodium Mauritus in Queensland for the supply of fabric filters for the new Secondary Crusher and Screenhouse facilities.
The filters selected were from the Luehr DF range, which utilise reverse pulse compressed air “on-line”, cleaning of the filter bags. The unique feature of this design is its flat horizontal filter bag arrangement, which allows extremely quick inspection of the clean air chamber. This facility obviates the need to use tools or lifting gear to access the filter bags. Bag changing is conducted from the adjacent access platform and does not require maintenance personnel to enter the filter.
Result
The units were delivered in open shipping containers due to their dimensions, arrived on schedule and by all accounts are performing well.