Rio Tinto Technology and Innovation — JADAR Pilot Plant

Aquatic Mechanics was engaged to assist in the construction and maintenance of a chemical processing pilot plant at Rio Tinto’s Bundoora R&D site.

The pilot plant was built to process Jadarite ore with the end task of extracting and refining lithium, boric acid and sodium sulphate.

Aquatic Mechanics provided practical skills and problem solving in plant layout and construction, pump preventative maintenance and rebuilding, particle filtration, vapour condensate capture, heating and process automation equipment.

After a sustained construction, testing and commissioning phase, Aquatic Mechanics also participated amongst a multidisciplinary team of experts to achieve the final successful four week, 24 hour campaign of continuous production from the pilot plant.

The pilot plant is housed within a 40 foot shipping container and will eventually be transported to site in Serbia where it will be used for training purposes before up-scaling to a full production plant.