Dewatering of fine slurries by the Kalgoorlie Filter Pipe

Filtration of slimes is difficult due to the cake build up of fine solids. This cake has a high resistance to flow and slows the dewatering process. In the 1970’s and 80’s work on the crossflow filtration process offered improvements in the filtration of these fine solids by keeping the cake to a limited thickness. This was achieved by using a shearing force on the cake generated by a slurry flow tangential to the filter medium. Working on this principle, the Kalgoorlie Filter Pipe uses a flexible hose of a woven medium to provide dewatering of slurries under pressure. The pressure required for this dewatering can be found in any line where a slurry is being pumped from one location to another, such as a tailings discharge line. Laboratory and plant trials have shown that for some gold tailings, an increase of up to 9% can be obtained in slurry % solids over a 100 m pipe length.