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Equinox Minerals operates the biggest copper mine in Africa located
at Lumwana in Northwest province Zambia. Open pit mining methods
are
used to access the ore which is hauled to the process plant where it
is crushed and processed into final concentrate. The mine operates a
large fleet of equipment, including 27 EH4500 dump
trucks, 5 shovels, 4 excavators and more than 100 light vehicles
to achieve it's voluminous through put of 20 million tons per year.
This fleet consumes in excess of 1.5 million liters of diesel and
15,000 liters oil per month. As a result, spillage and leakage of
diesel and oil at the site is inevitable during storage, refueling,
equipment breakdown and equipment servicing. |
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As an environmentally aware company, it is a site rule that any
hydrocarbon spillage must be treated with importance whereby the
spilled product must be contained, the spillage controlled and the
contaminated area cleaned up. All the waste generated during clean
up, which is mostly contaminated soil, is taken to an on-site
bioremediation treatment facility.
The
soil is treated using bioremediation techniques to reduce the
concentration of the TPH contaminants in the soil to internationally
acceptable levels of <1,000 ppm. TPH levels are measured before
treatment of the soil to estimate the amount of nutrients required
(nitrates & phosphates) for the process and thereafter weekly to
monitor progress of the remediation process.
To
monitor the progress, Sitelab's TD-500D analyzer and soil test
kits are used to measure the levels of TPH in soil under treatment.
After concentrations are below the 1,000 ppm action level, the soil
is either used for rehabilitation of disturbed areas or is used for
pot filling and the nursery. To date 32 tons of 120 tons of
stockpiled contaminated soil have been treated and the soil has been
used at the
nursery and in rehabilitation programs. |
Sitelab test kits in use at
Lumwana... |
