Expertise
Ranger Laterite Processing Plant - Australia
Ranger Laterite Processing Plant - Australia
ERA (Energy Resources Australia) is a subsidiary of Rio Tinto and exports uranium oxide to Asia and North America. ERA is the third largest uranium producer in the world. The facility is located 260km SE of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia.
SNC-Lavalin carried out the feasibility study for ERA which after successful completion awarded the EPCM services contract to SNC-Lavalin for the implementation of the Uranium Laterite Processing Plant which consists of the following:
- A ball mill followed by a trommel with the coarse from trommel (nominal +10 mm) conveyed back to a rejects stockpile and middlings (-10, +1mm) transferred to a single deck screen feeding into a vertical crusher feeding back into the ball mill.
- Scrubbing circuit fines (- 1 mm) separated at the screen, pumped to a thickener and the thickener underflow slurry is pumped into a two tank laterite leach circuit which is part of the existing primary ore leach train. The thickener overflow is recycled back to the mill.
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The laterite leach slurry overflows from the second tank into the ground primary ore coarse leach stream (cyclone underflow) and then contacts fine ore stream in downstream leach train. The mix slurry eventually reports to the recovery circuit at the CCD1thickener. There is also provision for direct gravity overflow discharge of the laterite slurry to the CCD1 thickener, where required through separate piping.