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A Robust Water-Balance Method For Sizing Heap Leach Solution Ponds and Water Reservoirs
A Robust Water-Balance Method For Sizing Heap Leach Solution Ponds and Water Reservoirs
INTRODUCTION
A water balance is a calculation procedure, which provides for detailed analyses
of the state of the system, using climatological and operational variables. A
water balance is an accounting of water, using the general hydrologic equation
(Thornthwaite and Mather, 1955, 1957)
P - Q D Sw - E D Ss - D=0
rates which must be treated and released. Design usually involves predicting the
state of the system for extreme events, such as meteorological droughts or
excessive precipitation. Therefore, the water balance is a design tool for sizing
and operating the facilities. Water balances are generally more sensitive to
operational variables than to climatological variables.
The purpose of a water balance, then, is to answer the questions How do we
know that the state of the system may not overtop the available storage? or How
do we know that the state of the system may not be reduced to zero at a time of
heavy water demand? The following sections present the traditional approach to
answering these questions and a more robust approach.
record to always provide a full 12 years of climatological data. In this way, all
possible combinations of climatological record are experienced by the project
operation.
Obviously, in a mining or water resources project, it is not possible to determine
a priori if the project will come on line in a wet, dry, or average climatological
year. Figure 1 shows a 33-year time series of monthly precipitation in Per
showing wet and dry periods based on a six-year moving average analysis. By
analyzing the system using a robust water-balance method, the probability of
having a successful project or finding areas of concern during system operation
can be identified. The next section gives an example design for the volume of
makeup water and makeup pond volume for a heap leach pad. The robust
water-balance model also can be used to design the lixiviant pond volume, or
the volume of water treatment required, as well as many other operational
variables.
2500
2300
2100
Wet
Dry
Wet
Dry
Wet
Dry
Wet
1900
1700
1500
1300
1100
900
Total Annual
700
500
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
Year
Figure 1. Total annual and six-year moving average precipitation showing wet and dry periods.
DESIGN EXAMPLE
The following example project demonstrates the use of the robust waterbalance approach. This project is a 2.8 million tonnes per year (tpy) gold heap
leach project in northern Per. Previous designs had been done, and this
project was an expansion to an existing project. The existing process ponds had
been sized and constructed to store 182,500 cubic meters (m) of fluid, and
these ponds, were to remain with the owners desire to not construct either new
ponds or expand the size of the existing ponds due to land space constraints.
Design procedure
After developing a six-year plan for expansion of the heap leach pad, a water
balance was done using the 33-year period of monthly precipitation from a
nearby climatological station. Figure 2 shows the 33-year precipitation record in
relation to the six-year project life.
The mine life was estimated by the owner to be approximately six years based
on the proven ore reserves.
makeup water required to expand the heap leach pad to 2.8 million tpy.
450
350
300
250
200
C
150
100
50
Nov
Jul
Sep
Mar
May
Nov
Jan-92
Jul
Sep
Mar
May
Nov
Jan-85
Jul
Sep
Mar
May
Nov
Jan-78
Jul
Sep
Mar
May
Nov
Jan-71
Jul
Sep
Mar
May
Jan-64
Month/Year
450
6-year mine life
400
Second run
N - 5 Run
350
300
250
200
C
150
100
50
Nov
Jul
Sep
May
Mar
Jan-92
Sep
Nov
Jul
Mar
May
Jan-85
Nov
Jul
Sep
May
Mar
Jan-78
Sep
Nov
Jul
Mar
May
Jan-71
Nov
Jul
Sep
May
Mar
Jan-64
Month/Year
Figure 3. Water-balance runs for six-year mine life and 33 years of climatological record.
Interpretation of Results
By beginning the six-year project water balance in each of the 33 years of
climatological data, all possible combinations of operational (ore loading) and
climatological possibilities were modeled. Using 33 years of the monthly data
and six years per run meant that 198 values of required pond volume and
makeup water volume were generated for each of the 12 months of the
calendar. This total number of values was 2,376 for the 33 water-balance
cases. Given so many values, 198 per month, or 2,376 total values, raises the
question of how to interpret the meaning of these values.
Because engineers often design facilities for the largest or smallest values
generated from a time series analysis, the robust method uses univariate
statistics to summarize the 2,376 values into usable design values. Univariate
statistics are defined by the mean (average), variance (or standard deviation),
maximum, and minimum values for a given set of events.
Figure 4 shows the required pond volume for six years of heap leach pad
operation based on using all 33 years of monthly climatological record. Figure 4
shows the average, maximum, and minimum monthly values for the six-year
project operation period. Figure 4 indicates that the maximum storage does not
exceed the existing pond capacity of the 182,500 m of fluid. Also, the waterbalance model predicts that the minimum pond volume required is
approximately 37,000 m at the beginning of the six-year operation, and
increases to over 100,000 m near the end of the operation period (Figure 4).
Therefore, the water balance analysis helps set operational criteria for the
operating pond(s) in order to minimize the makeup water requirements.
Figure 5 shows the monthly average, maximum, and minimum makeup water
rate for the six-year project operation period. Makeup water requirements are
largest in the first few months of the expansion project (over 25 m/hr) because
the ore must be initially wetted to bring its moisture content up to the leaching
moisture content. The larger maximum makeup water requirements occur
during the end of the Peruvian dry season in the months of September and
October.
200,000
180,000
160,000
140,000
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
Average
Maximum
20,000
Minimum
Dec-02
Jun-02
Sep-02
Dec-01
Mar-02
Jun-01
Sep-01
Dec-00
Mar-01
Jun-00
Sep-00
Dec-99
Mar-00
Jun-99
Sep-99
Dec-98
Mar-99
Jun-98
Sep-98
Dec-97
Mar-98
Sep-97
Month/Year
(5)
(10)
(15)
(20)
Average
(25)
Maximum
Minimum
Dec-02
Sep-02
Jun-02
Dec-01
Mar-02
Sep-01
Jun-01
Mar-01
Dec-00
Sep-00
Jun-00
Mar-00
Dec-99
Sep-99
Jun-99
Mar-99
Dec-98
Jun-98
Sep-98
Mar-98
Dec-97
Sep-97
(30)
Month/Year
Figure 6 shows the cumulative monthly makeup water volume over the life of
the project. This makeup water must come from either an outside source, such
as a well field or from a storage pond separate from the operational pond(s).
Analysis of Figure 6 shows that the maximum cumulative makeup of 80,000 m
of water occurs during the first six months of operation, when operational pond
volumes are generally low (Figure 4). This demonstrates that there is a
combination of the 33-year climatological record and operating conditions which
would increase the cumulative monthly makeup water volume by approximately
four or five times the average cumulative makeup water volume shown on
Figure 6.
10,000
(10,000)
(20,000)
(30,000)
(40,000)
(50,000)
(60,000)
Average
(70,000)
Maximum
Minimum
(80,000)
Dec-02
Sep-02
Jun-02
Mar-02
Dec-01
Jun-01
Sep-01
Mar-01
Sep-00
Dec-00
Jun-00
Mar-00
Dec-99
Jun-99
Sep-99
Mar-99
Sep-98
Dec-98
Jun-98
Dec-97
Mar-98
Sep-97
(90,000)
Month/Year
CONCLUSIONS
Using a robust water-balance method to size storage ponds and reservoirs as
well as to calculate operational water demands is important to assess the
interactions between operational and climatological variables for the project.
Typically, operational variables play a much larger role than climatological
variables in design of the water management facilities.
In summary, the following conclusions are made related to use of the robust
water-balance approach.
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Use univariate statistics to summarize the results and select design values.
REFERENCES
Thornthwaite, C.W. and J.R. Mather, 1955, The water balance, Drexel Institute
of Technology, Laboratory of Climatology, Publications in Climatology, Volume
8, Number 1, Centerton, New Jersey.
Thornthwaite, C.W. and J.R. Mather, 1957, Instructions and tables for
computing potential evapotranspiration and the water balance, Institute of
Technology, Laboratory of Climatology, Publications in Climatology, Volume 10,
Number 3, Centerton, New Jersey.
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