The Cote Gold Mine has poured its first gold bar, as IAmGold’s new flagship operation near Gogama swings into production after nearly a decade of development.
One of the key aspects in the massive project’s construction – a 210-hectare open-pit mine with an 18-year operational expectancy – was satisfying federal and provincial environmental assessments, which called for “significant measures to be taken to minimize dust creation at the plant site and to utilize dust collection devices where practical,” according to the IAmGold project summary.
Air Separation Technologies Inc., part of the AST Group of Companies, a Burlington, Ont.-based operation offering turnkey air quality solutions, took a lead role in spearheading the project’s dust collection systems – which included engineering, planning, installation, and commissioning of 12 Donaldson dust collectors and associated ductwork.
With its team of engineers, service, and mechanical technicians offering more than 35 years of industry expertise, AST Group is a leader in steering industrial air-quality projects to the finish line and beyond.
“We are able to provide the whole package from start to finish – from engineering to ductwork, installation, electrical, commissioning, and aftermarket service,” said Ricardo Collantes, an AST project manager. “Very few companies can supply the whole package. Some companies supply equipment, but don’t install it; others may not provide engineering or support. In our case, we can do the whole thing.”
AST Group is the exclusive supplier of Donaldson dust collectors in Ontario, with a growing list of clients in the mining industry that includes Vale, GoldCorp, Harte Gold, and others.
As Donaldson stays up to date with dust collection technologies and equipment, AST Group can offer refined or retrofitted solutions tailored to any project. In the mining industry, which typically features difficult environments operating around the clock, these refined solutions can lead to operational efficiencies and cost-savings.
While traditional (box-shaped) baghouse dust collectors are in place in many industrial facilities, AST Group can utilize Donaldson’s RF Baghouse Dust Collectors – energy-efficient, high-volume collectors well-suited to mining environments.
The RF collector’s cylindrical shape prohibits dust accumulation and utilizes the Cyclonic Pre-Separation process to separate large volumes of heavy dust before reaching the filters, allowing the collector to handle higher dust volumes.
The single-valve RF collector combines a cyclone precleaner and baghouse into one unit, and features its own powerful and energy-efficient cleaning system, eliminating the need for installation of an external air compressor to clean the bag filters. The use of oval-shaped Dura-Life “Twice the Life” bag filters, as opposed to rounded bags that cannot flex and can be prone to ripping, means more operating efficiency.
The result is often a dust collector with a smaller footprint that works more efficiently and requires less maintenance. The RF collector’s cleaning system uses 62 per cent less energy than similar compressed-air cleaning systems and results in energy-cost savings of nearly 50 per cent.
AST Group also has expertise in tailoring projects to make use of an existing dust collection system. As a common example, if a dust collector is in place but plant capacity has expanded to exceed the collector’s capacity, AST Group can retrofit a collector by changing filtration from bags to pleated cartridge filters that allow the collector to handle more air without changing the vessel itself.
Since AST Group’s portion of the Cote Gold site preparation was completed, Collantes has found himself more in demand in the mining industry.
“We’re spending more time training and providing education to more companies in the industry so they can implement better projects,” Collantes said. “There are not a lot of people who stay in this industry for a long time, but we’ve been doing this for more than 30 years.”
For more information, visit www.astcanada.ca.
