Stoilensky Beneficiation Plant, Russia's leading iron ore producer, is building a thickening, recycling water supply and tailings transportation unit. With the start-up of the facility, the company will adopt a more efficient way of waste ore handling after beneficiation.

The new technology envisages waste pumping and its placement in the tailings pit in thickened condition. At the same time, 90% of industrial water originally used for transportation is recycled and returned into the benefication process. The introduction of this technology is necessitated by the need to improve the throughput of tailings transportation system as well as their storage in locations where slurry cannot get by means of the system under gravity, and the transportation of the entire water quantity would be non-feasible.

The project of adopting the new mode of handling, transportation and placement of tailings comprises three stages with gradual commissioning in 2013, 2017, and 2021 respectively. The switching to the new tailings transportation technology is to be completed by 2021.

The first stage of the thickening unit includes – apart from thickener No.1 – infrastructure facilities for the Complex support. Stages two and tree will comprise the installation of another three thickeners, slurry pumping station, expansion of pumping station No.3, and the installation of additional pumping equipment.

Stage I was commissioned in 2013. After 18 months of operation, record-high specific thickener performance of 0.9 tonnes of slurry per square meter was achieved. This figure exceeds the results achieved in Canada and the USA by one third.