Skip to content
Rows of AQUA-SEP membrane modules for mining water pretreatment in China.

Industry · Mining

Mining
plants and separation, end to end.

Mining sites need both heavy fabrication and tough separation. We build the process plants, vessels, and skids that go around the recovery train, and we bring our own membrane IP for the feeds that punish conventional systems. Tailings concentration, lithium brine recovery, acid mine drainage, and zero liquid discharge, engineered, fabricated, piloted on-site, and operated.

What you get

Outcomes our customers see.

Specific to mining. Verified on real projects. The numbers below come from work we have shipped, not data sheets.

Lithium recovery from brine
98%
Selective concentration of lithium chloride from continental brines, from sub-1% feeds.
Tailings water recovery
95%
Closed-loop recovery from tailings ponds, eliminating evaporator energy and freshwater draw.
ZLD compliance
Permit-ready zero liquid discharge systems for jurisdictions with mandatory discharge limits.
Heavy metal rejection
>99.9%
Independently verified on copper, nickel, zinc, and cadmium feeds.

Applications

Where we deploy.
What we deliver.

The specific scopes and separation problems we solve for mining operators.

Application 01

Lithium brine concentration

Energy-efficient evaporation alternative for lithium producers in South America, China, and North America.

Application 02

Acid mine drainage treatment

Recovery of clean water and isolation of metal sulfates for resale or compliant disposal.

Application 03

Tailings water recycle

Closed-loop systems that return process water to the head of the mill, eliminating freshwater draw and tailings dam pressure in equal measure.

Application 04

Heap leach pregnant solution polishing

Membrane-based polishing ahead of solvent extraction or precipitation.

Application 05

Reverse osmosis reject brine concentration

VMD takes RO reject from 6 to 8% TDS up to 25%+, shrinking disposal volumes by 4 to 6x and making ZLD economic.

Membrane technologies

The right process for the fluid.

Mining feeds rarely fail in one place. The chemistry, the solids loading, and the climate all conspire. We typically pair a membrane front-end (VMD or MD) with crystallization at the back-end for ZLD compliance, and add SLS upstream when suspended solids would otherwise crash the membranes.

Have a mining project
we should look at?

Send drawings, specs, or just the problem. We sign NDAs before discussing your work and respond promptly. If our scope isn't the right fit, we will tell you.