KP3 Raffinate Booster Pump Station

The KP3 Raffinate Booster Pump Station, designed and constructed in 2007, delivers 50,000 gpm of raffinate to the King Placer stockpile, which increases in elevation 30 feet per year. The raffinate pump station is part of a process that produces copper cathodes from leaching, also referred to as solution extraction and electrowinning (SX/EW). Raffinate is a weak sulfuric acid solution that is continually distributed through irrigation lines on top of stockpiles to remove copper from the ore.

The pump station was constructed on a previously graded site of a deep-dump (un-compacted) waste rock embankment, with one of the pump skids located near the outer slope. HDR performed a slope stability analysis to determine the potential for static slope failure. A vibration analysis was also performed by HDR to ensure that the structural design provided sufficient damping to prevent damage to the structure.

The KP3 Raffinate Booster Pump Station operates 24 hrs per day, year round, and must cover 21 design points (each 30-foot lift) for a total increase in static head of 600 feet. Extensive hydraulic modeling was performed to evaluate various scenarios to meet all of the design points while minimizing system shutdowns to add stages and change out impellers.