4,200% smaller footprint, 59x faster evaporation for mines
Water evaporates only where it meets air. This once required huge tailing ponds to keep up with the pace of your mining operation. Not anymore.
Instead of gaining surface area through dam height lifts and rainfall catchment area increases, EcoVAP lifts water up and lets gravity do the rest. Configurable to any shape and size, the system speeds water removal by 5,900%. This reduces land footprint, lowers environmental risks and speeds the extraction of valuable minerals. When you’re ready to increase production, you don’t need another pond or to expand your TSF — EcoVAP exponentially increases the productivity of what you already use.
No leaching, no breaching
You’re already working hard to manage the operational risks associated with tailing ponds and TSFs. EcoVAP boosts your efforts by enabling zero-discharge dry-stack facilities while reducing the need for TSF expansion. It also doubles as a post-TSF water disposal system. By accelerating evaporation, you’ll shrink your exposure to leaching and breaching from months to days. This unlocks a faster, safer timeline without any fussy filters, harmful chemicals or costly power demands. And you’ll secure your mine’s long-term viability.
Cut water handling costs by <95%
Managing water through trucking, piping, dam lifts and TSF expansion construction can require expensive, continuous spending. EcoVAP lets you reap the cost benefits over decades of continuous operation. Its modular designs also let you expand capacity over short time frames. And unlike high-pressure misters and sprayers, EcoVAP requires virtually zero maintenance. Its pump runs can run in as little as two hours per day, requires little power and evaporates just water. No clogging. No contaminants. And low operating costs over the life of your mine.
Increasing production while lowering cost
This remote metal mine wanted to ramp up production, but limited available land for water management facility expansion and high trucking expenses for offsite disposal held them back. Installing EcoVAP didn’t just cut their trucking costs by 85%. Just four months later, they also increased their zero-discharge water management capacity from 25 to 150 gpm, enabling more concentrate processing.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions from mining operators.
Yes. We didn’t just make those numbers up. In 2017, Golder (now a member of WSP) conducted an Engineer’s Certification Water Balance and Validation Test that confirmed those exact figures. And real, working operations have seen that rate, too.
EcoVAP speeds the normal pan evaporation rate of individual locations, and those rates already factor conditions like rainfall, temperature and humidity. In the Pacific Northwest, the pan evaporation rate is naturally lower than the American Southwest. But the multiple doesn’t change. If your average pan evaporation is 1” per day, EcoVAP speeds elimination to 59” per day. If your local rate is 100” per day, you can expect to remove 5,900” each day. And our team calculates how much monthly water volume EcoVAP will remove by checking the pan evaporation rates of your operation’s exact latitude, longitude and elevation.
EcoVAP can handle high concentrations of dissolved solids up to 200,000 ppm, or roughly 20%. Many mine ponds are far below that, at just 5,000 to 10,000 parts per million. And we can often eliminate a lot of water, up to 95%, before you hit the system’s capacity.
That said, EcoVAP isn’t designed to replace traditional tailings management systems that have higher solids contents. Instead, you can use it to supplement water elimination through continuous evaporation, which is especially beneficial in zero-discharge systems. And when it comes through dry-stack systems that rely on filter presses, EcoVAP continuously removes water from settling ponds. This prevents capacity issues from solids buildup and maximizes the overall efficiency of your operation’s water management methods.
EcoVAP makes zero-discharge and dry-stack operations far more cost-effective by augmenting the discharge capacity of your tailings management systems. This means you’ll save on the construction and maintenance expenses of dam lifts and rainfall catchment expansions. It also lowers your dependency on extra water filtration systems, translating to lower operational expenses. Finally, EcoVAP helps you avoid costly downtime and repairs by preventing solids buildup.
The benefits are twofold. First, as an alternative to TSF expansion, EcoVAP’s small footprint lowers liability exposure even as your operation grows. This is especially helpful in new designs, where combining the matrix with dry-stack technology aids zero-discharge facilities or reduces the sizing needs of your TSFs. Second, in post-closure reclamation, EcoVAP lowers both monitoring costs and time, speeding up the process while reducing overall long-term risks.
You’ll need initial earthwork to prepare the site and concrete pad (if needed), and the size of your system will depend on your goals. Small installations start at the size of a football field end zone (roughly 2,500 square feet). You won’t need fans or any other electrical devices for evaporation — just power for the pump to saturate the 14-24’ tall matrix. This self-supporting system is contained with point loads of 4.3 PSI and engineered to withstand hurricane-force winds and extreme temperatures.
Maximize your existing ponds and TSFs with EcoVAP. Tell us about your operation today!
With EcoVAP, you don’t need to acquire more land or permission for additional tailing ponds. You don’t need to carve out a budget for expensive trucking and piping. And you don’t need to assign maintenance crews to babysit your misters constantly. You’ll reap the benefits of scaling production speed and volume — and future-proof your operation from long-term sustainability risks.
Are you ready to see how EcoVAP can improve your mining operation?
Schedule a site visit today.