Actiflo® clarification Kevitsa, Finland

Customer’s needs

 

  1. The company wants to treat more efficiently metalliferous waters going out from the mine according to the environmental permit prior to their leading to the nature.
  2. It mainly comes three different types of water fractions from the mine: process water from concentration plant, waste rock area and open pit. It would be beneficial to be able to treat different types of waters with varying concentrations with a single unit.
  3. To test new technology and to prepare for more stringent permit criteria of higher concentrations of nickel, copper and TSS in influent, and for larger amount of waters to be treated in the future.

 

Benefits of Actiflo® process

 

  • Actiflo® is a compact clarification process, where microsand acts as a ballast for floc formation and settling.
  • High treatment efficiency (removal rate of turbidity > 90 %).
  • Very small footprint compared to conventional clarification processes.
  • Flexible process; reacts quickly to the changing raw water quality and provides consistently high quality effluent.
  • Short start-up time (less than 10 minutes).
  • Sludge treatability: the produced sludge can be thickened and dewatered easily.
  • Fully automated; easy to operate and to maintain.
  • Suitable for various types of waters and processes. 

Veolia’s Response

Modular Actiflo® unit with a capacity of 100 m3/h for removal of metals and TSS from wastewater. The system consists of lime dosing to the pH adjustment tank, Actiflo® unit with chemicalization and post pH adjustment with sulfuric acid.

The Client


Boliden Kevitsa
Briefly Boliden Kevitsa is a large open pit mine of nickel, copper, gold and platinum group metals in Northern Finland in Sodankylä.
The production was started in 2012. The amount of water to be treated and concentrations of metals and TSS will increase in future while the production is increasing. The climate change may also increase precipitation creating even more challenging hydrological conditions in the mine.