Case Study

Vertical Casings for Hydraulic Fill

Industry
Mining & Minerals Processing (Copper/Zinc)

Site
Xstrata Mt Isa, QLD Australia.

Application
144 m of vertical hydraulic/wet fill casings transporting 70% solids abrasive slurry from the surface to underground, reaching terminal velocities of up to 40-50 m/s.

Problem Description
Various traditional pipeline systems experienced short wear life and/or sudden, catastrophic failure leading to frequent pipeline change-out every 8-10 weeks and sometimes loss of the borehole. The maximum achievable amount of fill reticulated before casing change-out or system failure was around 300,000 tonnes or less. The resulting downtime created significant maintenance costs and disruption of mining production.

Imatech Solution
ArmorPIPE
In consultation with the client, Imatech designed a highly innovative solution incorporating the exclusive Imatech MXR abrasion-resistant ceramic reinforced composite material to achieve a stable, long-lasting pipe liner with a gradual and even wear pattern and no risk of catastrophic failure by sheet de-lamination.

The solution was engineered and tailored to handle the challenging operating conditions and to satisfy specific customer requirements including screwed site tool joint collars. Using innovative application techniques, the Imatech MXR composite was applied at Imatech's manufacturing facility in Geelong, Australia and delivered to site. Installation was carried out using conventional pipe torque equipment.

The Results
Regular video monitoring of the entire ArmorPIPE system revealed negligible wear, evenly distributed across the entire surface of the internal Imatech MXR lining. After 2,250,000 tonnes of fill reticulated, 90% of the original liner thickness was left – an achieved improvement by a factor of 7.5. Based on the operational results, the projected life of this casing system is 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 tonnes of fill reticulated, or an estimated improvement of 50 to 66 times. Very significant benefits that were recognized in addition to the extended wear life, are the reliability and predictability of the ArmorPIPE casings, as well as the absence of the risk of catastrophic liner failure by sheet de-lamination.

Due to this convincing success of ArmorPIPE, the customer made specific reference to the solution in a paper presented at a mine backfill conference, stating that Imatech ArmorPIPE is - …proving to be a profound success, and as such it will become the main casing used in hydraulic fill placement at Mount Isa Mines…”.