The Pueblo Viejo Dominicana Corporation (PVDC) mine is owned by Barrick (60 per cent) and Newmont (40 per cent), and operated by Barrick. The project is located in the central part of the Dominican Republic on the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola in the province of Sanchez Ramirez.
PVDC has commenced with an expansion project to increase processing operations, to economically treat future lower grade ore and thereby increasing the resource base and extending the life of mine. DRA SENET has been appointed as the engineering company for the expansion of the process plant, with responsibility for engineering and procurement and a supporting role during construction and commissioning.
Requirement
The scope of the expansion project includes the upgrade of the existing communition circuit, a new flotation circuit, upgrade of the existing pressure oxidation (POX) circuit, upgrade of all affected downstream circuits and upgrade of the associated infrastructure (oxygen supply, cooling towers and water supply).
Solution
IWC have designed and fabricated a number of field erected forced draft cooling towers to cool the hot solution from 90°C to 42°C with varying solution flow rates and plant demands.
IWC’s cost effective, efficient cooling solution is suited to withstand the corrosive process water of the pre-heater discharge as well as the HDS thickener overflow plants.
The units are fabricated from duplex stainless steel panels that are bolted together on site, and equipped with grade 316 stainless steel piping and drift eliminators. Additionally, there are fibreglass walkways for safe easy access for inspection and maintenance.
The pre-fabricated units were designed to be containerised for easy shipping to site. All goods have been dispatched to site, with erection scheduled to commence early 2022.
