Tailings Management & Water Recycling

Every aggregate wash plant produces a waste stream that consists of the process water, fines and other deleterious material removed during the washing process. Typically, this waste slurry is sent to a settling pond. These ponds can take up valuable land space, be costly and time-consuming to maintain, and cause permitting issues.

Water recycling and tailings management equipment can help aggregate producers recover process water from the waste stream for reuse in the wash plant, which is beneficial in areas where water is scarce or expensive to buy. This equipment can also be used to generate a drip-free solids material that is easy to handle, allowing producers to reduce or eliminate settling ponds. The solids material can even potentially be sold, adding an additional revenue stream.

Water recycling and tailings management starts with fines recovery, which involves capturing ultra-fine particles in the waste stream to reduce the amount of material reporting to the settling pond, to prepare the slurry for water recycling and lessen the burden on downstream equipment such as Thickeners and Filter Presses.

Through a partnership with Diefenbach, a leading manufacturer of liquid-solid separation equipment since 1907 and another member of the McLanahan Family of Companies, Eagle Iron Works offers a range of Thickeners and Filter Presses for water recycling and tailings management. This proven line of filtration and dewatering equipment complements EIW’s Hawk Fines Recovery Plant, which can be used as a standalone solution for recovering fines or as part of a larger system incorporating Thickeners and Filter Presses.