Myra Falls Paste Plant Retrofit

Rearden Mining Consultants took on the successful retrofit of a Paste Plant project for a Canadian mine from 2018 through 2019. This project was very challenging and spanned many disciplines. Managing Director Sean James was responsible for both the Project Management and the Construction Management for the project.

Challenge

The original plant was not capable of distributing paste to the underground mine.

Our approach

Rearden Mining Consultants worked closely with design engineers to optimize the design for practicality and cost, making the most of existing resources while also taking a long-term value approach when considering plant upgrades and installations. For example, although the original design and study considered making use of existing PLC equipment and simply modifying the existing program, it was decided that a more robust long-term plan would be to upgrade the PLC and completely re-write the automation program so that it would not only have a much greater life expectancy but would also be more compatible with existing systems on-site as time went on.

Project highlights

The new plant is able to deliver an optimized paste backfill to multiple zones deep within the mine as well as generate a filter cake which can be trucked to a safe surface storage location. The plant is currently being used to backfill historical and new stoping voids as the mine resumes operations and seeks to increase their mineable inventory.

Deliverables

  • Automation upgrades
  • Plant-wide electrical upgrades
  • Structural Steel upgrades and installation
  • Pump rebuilds and new pump installations including paste pumps
  • Foundation preparation and geotechnical assessments
  • Concrete installations including updated footings, floor pours, raft pour for Silo Support, and a new concrete sump installation
  • Binder Silo Erection
  • Disc Filter rebuild and reinstallation
  • New Disc Filter installation
  • Thickener refurbishment
  • Conveyor installations
  • UG and Surface Reticulation
  • All supply bids, negotiations, and contracts
  • Site management of multiple contractors

What our clients are saying

“He has a range of skills. He grasps concepts quickly and makes decisions. He didn’t have an easy job. He had a lot of responsibility, he was stretched thin, but it was easy to work with him. He took on whatever they threw at him. He assisted us a lot – he could make decisions, even when multiple disciplines were involved (civil, structural, electrical).”
Leslie Correia
Paterson & Cooke
“He really pushes to get things done. He pushes to solve problems. He is a very good liaison between engineering, the owners and contractors. It would be good news to me if I heard he was going to be the PM on a project I’m working on.”
Phil Antunes
SIMEM Underground Solutions