Underground mining operation improves safety while reducing operational cost of equipment.

HyperSol cleaning program for underground heavy equipment saves time and manpower costs while improving downstream operations and providing safer environment for miners.

CHALLENGE

A gold mining operation in Northern Quebec, was using hazardous solvents to clean grease and dirt from their heavy equipment underground. This caused a heightened concern with the miners and HSE department as these solvents were highly flammable, requiring the steel drums to be segregated and properly grounded.

Spent solvents from the cleaning process were rinsed into the underground sumps where they combined with the recycled water, resulting in the emulsification of the oil and grease.  This emulsion negatively impacted the underground thickener by causing the resulting slimes and solids to float rather than sinking, resulting in intermittent carry over of solids and dissolved metals.

SOLUTION

To minimize the risk to the miners’ health and safety as well as the negative environmental impact, Evergreen Solutions recommended using HyperSol to replace the solvents previously used on the heavy equipment cleaning process.

RESULTS

The new HyperSol program easily removed the oil and grease from the heavy equipment, reducing the cleaning time by 75%. The spent HyperSol is rinsed into the sumps with no negative impact on the water treatment system.