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Written by John Brown<\/em><\/p>\n Buritic\u00e1 Mine is a high-grade gold mine owned by Zijin-Continental Gold, and is located about 2 hours from Medellin, Colombia. Officially commissioned in July 2021, the mine then began commercial production a few months later in October, with an expected operation life of about 14 years.<\/p>\n Buritic\u00e1 Mine evaluated different options for handling the backfill requirements at the mine and ultimately selected a Schwing Bioset KSP220 pump. The new pump was delivered during the initial construction phases of the project for the new paste plant.<\/p>\n Driven by a 900HP power pack, the pump is operating between fifty and eighty percent output capacity at 1100 PSI material pressure in the pipeline, pumping product at 68% solids content. The paste is treated with metabisulfite to neutralize cyanide, leaving minimal traces of these chemicals. To create the paste, a mixture is made with a percentage of cement that is between 2% and 8% of cement and water to be pumped to the stopes based on the desired slump.<\/p>\n Using a double screw mixer, the mixture goes down to the retention hopper through a pipe of approximately two meters in length by gravity. From there, the paste is pumped through a 6\u201d pipe throughout the entire route and has been pumped 1.75 km underground.<\/p>\n The new KSP220 pump is also using Schwing Bioset\u2019s proprietary Ideal Control Circuit (ICC), which reduces paste flow velocity changes at the beginning and end of each pumping stroke to mitigate the pressure surges that can be seen in paste pipelines. This internal dampening system is achieved with simple position sensors and programming and avoids the complexities of other dampening systems external to the pumps that are available on the market.<\/p>\n\n\t\t