Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russia

N. P. Ovchinnikov, Director of the Mining Institute, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professor, ovchinnlar1986@mail.ru
I. V. Zyryanov, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor

Water drainage is one of the key technologies in underground mineral mining, which governs safety of operations. The main structural component of a water drainage system is the pumping equipment composed of mostly vertical split casing pumps of different series. Since the mid-2000s, Russian mining industry actively performs water drainage using the centrifugal corrosion-proof vertical split casing pumps which have the best running characteristics as compared with their analogs. However, in kimberlite mines, the actual overhaul periods of the pumps in pumping highly abrasive and aggressive brines appeared to be 2–8 times lower than the warranty periods, which brought additional expenses connected with operation of the whole water drainage facilities. In view of the lack of pumps adaptable to operation and pumping of water flows with particularly rough physicochemical characteristics, and to enhance efficiency of water drainage systems at kimberlite deposits, it is extremely useful to investigate, substantiate and ensure efficient modes of the pumps. The implemented study shows that the increase in the concentration of suspended matters at the outlets of water drainage sumps from 1 to 17 g/l leads to the decrease in the utilization coefficient of the pumps by 1.25–1.5 times depending on the selected strategy of the pumping equipment repair and maintenance. It is shown that efficiency of performance of mine water drainage systems in the conditions of highly abrasive and aggressive brines can be greatly improved through the decrease in the solid phase in the brines, and by optimizing frequency of capital repairs of the employed pumping equipment.

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