Weir and CiDRA Announce Strategic Investment and Global Collaboration Agreement

The Weir Group plc, a global leader in engineering and mining technology, and CiDRA Minerals Processing Inc., a pioneer in advanced mineral processing solutions, have announced a strategic investment and global collaboration agreement. Both companies are regular supporters of MEI Conferences, having sponsored Comminution '25 last month and CiDRA also sponsoring Flotation '25 this coming November.

MEI is pleased to hear that this new partnership will accelerate the commercialisation and global deployment of CiDRA’s groundbreaking P29 technology, a novel mineral separation platform that promises to transform traditional flowsheet design.

The agreement establishes a strategic partnership in which Weir invests in CiDRA’s mining business, and the two companies collaborate to scale and deploy P29 technology worldwide. The goal: to deliver innovative flowsheet solutions that help the mining industry address key challenges such as declining ore grades, water constraints, carbon reduction targets, and tailings safety.

CiDRA’s P29 is a revolutionary separation technology that redefines how minerals are recovered. Using proprietary engineered hydrophobic media, P29 separates and optimises key processing stages, including particle selectivity, transport, and release, independently. This enables highly selective recovery across a wide particle size range, from ultra-fine to coarse, while significantly reducing hydraulic entrainment.

Unlike conventional froth flotation, which is typically limited to particles between 100-200 microns, P29 is effective at recovering particles up to 3 mm in size. This is considerably coarser than the typical 500 microns upper size limit of Eriez's Hydrofloat cell or 2 mm with Jord's Novacell. The P29 capability allows for the direct recovery of coarse particles from the grinding circuit, reducing circulating load and increasing throughput, without the need for additional grinding capacity.

Instead of using air bubbles as in traditional flotation, P29 employs an engineered hydrophobic polymer matrix. This matrix selectively captures mineral particles based on surface properties, enabling high selectivity and low mass recovery, even for coarse, poorly liberated minerals.

P29 has already been successfully piloted in partnership with OZ Minerals at the Carrapateena Mine in South Australia. There it is being tested as a rougher step in the grinding circuit to improve throughput and recovery while reducing energy and water consumption.

Importantly, P29 is not a modified flotation process. it is a fundamentally different physical separation method. Described as a true "step-change" in mineral processing, P29 addresses the inherent limitations of flotation, especially in the recovery of coarse and low-liberated particles.

The mining community will be eager to learn more about how P29 complements and enhances grinding-flotation circuits, especially at Flotation '25, where integration strategies and performance data are expected to be shared. 

CiDRA is renowned for developing technologies that enhance recovery, improve operational efficiency, and advance sustainability in mining. Its SONARtrac flowmeter technology is widely used across the industry for non-invasive, accurate flow measurement in abrasive slurry environments, and the CYCLONEtrac system offers real-time performance monitoring at the individual hydrocyclone level, empowering operations to optimise throughput and recovery.

CiDRA’s Travis and Joe Felix discussing CYCLONEtrac and SONARtrac at Flotation '23

Expect significant interest at CiDRA’s booth at Flotation '25, where attendees will be eager to explore the potential of P29 and the company’s other cutting-edge solutions.