Mining

PYROMETALLURGY

At different steps of the pyrometallurgy processes, Air Liquide Australia provides solutions - gas and technologies - that help customers to enhance purity of metal, increase productivity and maximise the use of their installations.

For example, Air Liquide's oxygen injection technology in smelters and converter reduces energy consumption while reducing environmental emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide (NOx).

• Refining

  • To enhance the purity of a metal product, a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen is injected to de-oxidise copper or to clean slag (copper and zinc). Air Liquide Australia has expertise in designing submerged tailpipe or lances for hydrogen injection.
• Smelter Oxy-Fuel Enhancement
  • Oxy-fuel combustion technology: Air Liquide has capabilities in designing oxy-fuel burners to be installed in certain parts of smelters in order to homogenise temperature and/or increase the productivity of the smelter.

  • Oxygen blast mixing technology: Air Liquide has capabilities in designing safe and efficient technologies to enrich the air injected in both smelters and roasters. Designed to be easily retrofitted directly in the air duct, our OXYNATOR™ technology allows you to minimise the mixing distance and ensure safe oxygen enrichment.

PROCESS WATER TREATMENT

Air Liquide supplies a range of products, equipment and services for water and wastewater treatment. Carbon dioxide is commonly used for mining effluent pH reduction instead of strong acids. Ozone can recover cyanide from thiocyanate by-product of gold cyanide leaching or destroy residual free cyanide and thiocyanate.

Air Liquide’s innovative and efficient solutions help our customers use water resources responsibly while respecting the environment with regards to wastewater effluent. Air Liquide applies its many years of experience in the water treatment industry to design systems that meet the diverse needs of our customers, all while putting safety and the environment first. We innovate to develop long-term solutions to safely maximise efficiency and robustness while minimising costs and complexity.

• Cyanide destruction with ozone

  • Free Cyanide and thiocyanide (SCN) can be converted to cyanate (CNO) using ozone as an oxidant. Ozone is generated on customer site from oxygen and power. Residual oxygen can be recycled to gold leaching.
• Cyanide recovery with ozone
  • Cyanide can be recovered from thiocyanide (SCN) using ozone under specific pH conditions and recycled back into the gold cyanide leaching process. It can be integrated into the SART process. Ozone is generated on customer site from oxygen and power. Residual oxygen can be recycled to gold leaching process.
• Acid mine drainage neutralisation
  • Acid mine drainage will sometime require dissolved metals precipitation using lime under pH over 10. Carbon dioxide is applied afterward to meet environmental pH regulations.
• Carbon dioxide (CO₂) pH control
  • Air Liquide Australia provides solutions for meeting environmental pH regulations and ammonia fish toxicity regulations. You can adjust the pH of your mines final effluent by using Air Liquide's pH control technology with carbon dioxide. Air Liquide supplies a range of products, equipment and services for water and wastewater treatment. To explore all of our water treatment offers, visit our Water Treatment page.

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE

For over 100 years, welding and cutting gases have been at the heart of Air Liquide’s offer. Over time, our expertise has evolved to meet the changing needs of our customers and technologies.

Contact us or find our products near your location using the Agent Finder.