The processing of minerals and ores produces tailings as an unavoidable residue. These tailings are either deposited in tailing storage facilities (TSF) or used as backfill in underground operations. In both cases filtration is taking an increasing share. In TSF operations because of increasing sensitivity to safety, environment, real estate, water consumption and last but not least the cost for mine closure. And in backfill cases to minimize the amount of cement/binder which is the major driver of operating cost.

Similar to many industries, the capacity per production line of minerals and ore processing is increasing from project to project. The major reason is that the cost for equipment with double capacity is just 50 – 70 % more (not double). Therefore, the total capital expenditure (CAPEX) for bigger projects is decreasing per ton of product and projects become more feasible with a high chance of realization.

The paper will tell the four-years success story of the new high-performance disc filter giant BoVac Disc XL352 from the first idea to the commissioning and operation of the first unit in a backfill plant of an European copper and zinc mine. It will explain the design criteria to make sure that the upsizing is ensuring a reliable operation with regard to cake formation, solids distribution, cake moisture and complete cake discharge. It will highlight hurdles and their technical solutions in relation to the maintenance requirement of this filter size. Finally, the commissioning activities will be listed and discussed. The paper concludes with a comparison of the production results with the lab testing that was done to size the filter and to provide process guarantee figures.