Practical tailings slurry dewatering and tailings management strategies for small and medium mines

G. McPhail, Roxana Ugaz Palomino, Francisco Garcia Araujo
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引用次数: 4

Abstract

Recent tailings facility failures and the resulting emphasis on ensuring that the best available technology is applied when designing a tailings management system, together with a need to reduce water consumption, have brought about a need for wider evaluation of tailings management approaches. A key determining issue is the extent to which tailings slurry can be cost-effectively dewatered. This issue often drives the selection between high-density slurry, paste and filtered tailings management approaches. Commonly, the focus is purely on thickening, where production rates exceed 30,000 t per day, or filtration, which is most suitable for production rates below 30,000 t per day due to the number of units required, as the means for separating the solids and the liquids. However, there are alternative approaches, suitable for small and medium sized mines, that are not only competitive in terms of capital and operating cost but that may also be significantly more robust and accommodating of variations in ore mineralogy and process plant upsets. These entail the application of hydrocyclones and/or vibratory dewatering screens in conjunction with thickening and/or filtration, sometimes treating only a part of the tailings stream in order to more reliably achieve dewatering targets. The alternative approaches can facilitate more balanced optimisation between the broader drivers of water recovery, slope stability, seepage control and post-closure relinquishment. This paper describes a range of alternative dewatering approaches (in addition to pure thickening or filtration) that merit consideration. It provides insight into the methods of testing and evaluation for selection and sizing of the equipment, describes tailings placement and storage methods associated with varying degrees of dewatering, and discusses the related benefits in terms of robustness of dewatering, water recovery, slope stability, seepage control and post-closure relinquishment.
中小型矿山尾矿浆脱水及尾矿管理实用策略
最近尾矿设施发生故障,因此在设计尾矿管理系统时强调确保采用现有的最佳技术,再加上需要减少水的消耗,因此需要更广泛地评价尾矿管理办法。一个关键的决定问题是尾矿浆在多大程度上可以经济有效地脱水。这个问题经常促使高密度浆体、膏体和过滤尾矿管理方法之间的选择。通常,重点是纯粹的增稠,当产量超过30000吨/天,或过滤,这是最适合的产量低于30000吨/天,由于所需的单位数量,作为分离固体和液体的手段。不过,也有适合中小型矿山的其他办法,这些办法不仅在资本和业务成本方面具有竞争力,而且可能更加有力,能够适应矿石矿物学和加工工厂的变化。这就需要应用水力旋流器和/或振动脱水筛,同时进行浓缩和/或过滤,有时为了更可靠地实现脱水目标,只处理部分尾矿流。替代的方法可以促进更平衡的优化更广泛的驱动因素之间的水回收,斜坡稳定,渗水控制和关闭后放弃。本文描述了一系列值得考虑的替代脱水方法(除了纯浓缩或过滤)。它提供了对设备选择和尺寸的测试和评估方法的见解,描述了与不同程度的脱水相关的尾矿放置和储存方法,并讨论了在脱水的稳健性、水回收、边坡稳定性、渗流控制和关闭后放弃方面的相关好处。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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