CiDRA Minerals Processing announced today that SONARtrac process monitoring instrumentation has been chosen for flow measurement on critical water lines within the Collahuasi mine in Chile. CiDRA, working with TIAR Ltda of Chile, has installed more than ten systems in the mine’s concentrator water lines to accurately and reliably measure the water flow to the concentrator.

Collahuasi copper mine is situated in northern Chile, about 180km south east of the port of Iquique, at an altitude of 4,000m. The mine is 44% owned by Xstrata plc (following its acquisition of Falconbridge Ltd in 2006) in a joint venture with Anglo American (44%) and a Japanese consortium (12%) comprising Japan Collahuasi Resources BV, Mitsui and Co Ltd, Nippon Mining and Metals Co Ltd and Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co Ltd. The operating company is Cia Minera Doña Ines de CollahuasiMinera.

CiDRA’s SONARtrac flow technology is a new class of industrial flowmeter, utilising measurement principles that are distinct from all other flowmeter technologies operating in the mining industry. SONARtrac non-intrusive flow monitoring systems make no contact with the liquid or slurry and can be removed and reinstalled when it is necessary to replace the pipe.

SONARtrac systems also demonstrate very stable output and superior levels of performance in the presence of highly variable fluid properties. This passive sonar-based technology enables measurements of single-phase liquids, as well as multi-phase fluids such as aerated liquids and slurries. This is a platform technology that also enables new capabilities such as sand out detection, density correction and acoustic pipeline monitoring.