Document Type : Regular Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Engineering, University of Birjand, Birjand

2 Faculty of Engineering, University of Birjand, Birjand, South Khorasan, Iran

3 Senior Process Engineer, Opal Parsian Sangan Industrial and Mineral Co. (OPSIM), Khaf, Iran

Abstract

The thickening of the iron ore tailings allows process water to be partially recovered and recirculated, also it reduces the fresh water consumption, which results in lower operating costs and less environmental impacts. The settling characteristics of the mineral components of an iron ore tailing in the thickening process may be different under various pulp conditions. Hence, the study of the characteristics of the mineral components of the iron ore tailings separately can provide very useful information about the thickening of an iron ore tailing. In this research, the settling behavior of the main mineral components of iron ore tailings including quartz and magnetite have been investigated under various operational conditions. The quartz and magnetite showed different settling behaviors, so as the maximum settling rate of quartz was achieved under different pulp conditions than that of magnetite was. There was a big difference between the maximum settling rates of quartz and magnetite, as the maximum settling rates of quartz and magnetite were 197 and 873 m/h respectively. In the thickening of an iron ore tailing, the pulp conditions must be set based on the settling behavior of the mineral component with the lowest settling rate.

Keywords

Main Subjects

  • References

    • Ihle, C. F. and Kracht, W., “The relevance of water recirculation in large scale mineral processing plants with a remote water supply”, Cleaner Prod., 177, 34 (2018).
    • Northey, S. A., Mudd, G. M., Werner, T. T., Haque, N. and Yellishetty, M., “Sustainable water management and improved corporate reporting in mining”,Water Resour. Ind., 21, 100104 (2019).
    • Grammatikopoulos, T. and Downing, S., “The disruptive role of process mineralogy in geology and mineral processing industry”, Min. Miner. Sci., 5, 571 (2020).
    • Chaedir, B. A., Kurnia, J. C., Sasmito, A. P. and Mujumdar, A. S., “Advances in dewatering and drying in mineral processing”,Drying Technol., 39 (11), 1 (2021).
    • Jiao, H., Wu, Y., Wang, W., Chen, X., Wang, Y., Liu, J. and Feng, W., “The micro-scale mechanism of metal mine tailings thickening concentration improved by shearing in gravity thickener”, Renewable Mater., 9 (4), 637 (2021).
    • Nguyen, C. V., Dinh, E., Doi, A., Nguyen, T. V. and Nguyen, A. V., “Accurate, fully automated determination of the initial settling rate of flocculated suspensions”, Eng., 164, 106823 (2021).
    • Eswaraiah, C., Biswal, S. K. and Mishra, B. K., “Settling characteristics of ultrafine iron ore slimes”, J. Min. Met. Mater., 19 (2), 95 (2012).
    • Shi, Z. X., Zhou, X. L., Luo, W. B., Liu, Z. Q., Sun, D. Y. and Zhang, X. M., “Different slurry concentration on settling effect of the iron tailings,” Mater. Res., 634-638, 3325 (2013).
    • Jeldres, R. I., Jeldres, M., MacIver, M. R., Pawlik, M., Robles, P. and Toro, N., “Analysis of kaolin flocculation in seawater by optical backscattering measurements: Effect of flocculant management and liquor conditions”, Minerals, 10 (4), 317 (2020).
    • Sun, Y., Zhou, S., Sun, W., Zhu, S. and Zheng, H., “Flocculation activity and evaluation of chitosan-based flocculant CMCTS-gP (AM-CA) for heavy metal removal”, Purif. Technol., 241, 116737 (2020).
    • BinAhmed, S., Ayoub, G., Al-Hindi, M. and Azizi, F., “The effect of fast mixing conditions on the coagulation–flocculation process of highly turbid suspensions using liquid bittern coagulant”, Water Treat., 53 (12), 3388 (2015).
    • Quezada, G. R., Ayala, L., Leiva, W. H., Toro, N., Toledo, P. G., Robles, P. and Jeldres, R. I., “Describing mining tailing flocculation in seawater by population balance models: Effect of mixing intensity”, Metals, 10 (2), 240 (2020).
    • Costine, A., Cox, J., Travaglini, S., Lubansky, A., Fawell, P. and Misslitz, H., “Variations in the molecular weight response of anionic polyacrylamides under different flocculation conditions”, Eng. Sci., 176, 127 (2018).
    • Guo, K., Gao, B., Pan, J., Shen, X., Liu, C., Yue, Q. and Xu, X., “Effects of charge density and molecular weight of papermaking sludge-based flocculant on its decolorization efficiencies”, Total Environ., 723, 138136 (2020).
    • Metaxas, A. E., Panwar, V., Olson, R. L. and Dutcher, C. S., “Ionic strength and polyelectrolyte molecular weight effects on floc formation and growth in Taylor–Couette flows”, Soft Matter., 17 (5), 1246 (2021).
    • Grabsch, A. F., Yahyaei, M. and Fawell, P. D., “Number-sensitive particle size measurements for monitoring flocculation responses to different grinding conditions”, Eng., 145, 106088 (2020).
    • Chen, R., Fan, Y., Dong, X., Ma, X., Feng, Z., Chang, M. and Li, N., “Impact of pH on interaction between the polymeric flocculant and ultrafine coal with atomic force microscopy (AFM)”, Colloids Surf. A, 622, 126698 (2021).
    • Sadangi, J. K., Sahoo, A. K., Sushobhan, B. R. and Choudhury, N., “Effect of anionic flocculant on settling rate of iron ore ultra-fines”, Today: Proc., 30, 316 (2020).
    • Arjmand, R., Massinaei, M. and Behnamfard, A., “Improving flocculation and dewatering performance of iron tailings thickeners,” Water Process Eng., 31, 100873 (2019).
    • Yang, Y., Wu, A., Klein, B. and Wang, H., “Effect of primary flocculant type on a two-step flocculation process on iron ore fine tailings under alkaline environment”, Eng., 132, 14 (2019).
    • ISO 2597-1:2006, Iron ores - Determination of total iron content - Part 1: Titrimetric method after tin(II) chloride reduction, ISO Publications, Geneva, Switzerland, (2006).
    • Mohassab, Y., Elzohiery, M., Chen, F. and Sohn, H. Y., “Determination of total iron content in iron ore and DRI: Titrimetric method versus ICP-OES analysis”, Proceedings of EPD Congress 2016, Springer, Cham, pp. 125-133, (2016).
    • Andrade, S., Hypolito, R., Ulbrich, H. H. and Silva, M. L., “Iron (II) oxide determination in rocks and minerals”, Geol., 182 (1), 85 (2002).
    • Maxwell, J. A., “Rock and mineral analysis”, In: Elving, P. J., Kolthoff, I. M. (Eds.), Chemical Analysis, Wiley-Interscience, New York, pp. 419-421, (1968).
    • Pillai, J., “Flocculants and coagulants: The keys to water and waste management in aggregate production”, Nalco Company, Illinois, USA, (1997).
    • Wiśniewska, M., Urban, T., Grządka, E., Zarko, V. I. and Gun’ko, V. M., “Comparison of adsorption affinity of polyacrylic acid for surfaces of mixed silica–alumina”, Colloid Polym. Sci., 292 (3), 699 (2014).
    • Yao, J., Yin, W. and Gong, E., “Depressing effect of fine hydrophilic particles on magnesite reverse flotation”, J. Miner. Process., 149, 84 (2016).
    • Nasser, M. S. and James, A. E., “The effect of polyacrylamide charge density and molecular weight on the flocculation and sedimentation behaviour of kaolinite suspension”, Purif. Technol., 52 (2), 241 (2006).
    • Graveling, G. J., Ragnarsdottir, K. V., Allen, G. C., Eastman, J., Brady, P. V., Balsley, S. D. and Skuse, D. R., “Controls on polyacrylamide adsorption to quartz, kaolinite, and feldspar”, Cosm. Acta, 61 (17), 3515 (1997).
    • Ibrahim, S. S. and Abdel-Khalek, N. A., “The action of different types of corn starch on the flocculation of phosphate slimes”, Eng., 5 (8), 907 (1992).
    • Lelis, D. F., Leão, V. A. and Lima, R. M. F., “Effect of EDTA on quartz and hematite flotation with starch/amine in an aqueous solution containing Mn2+ ions”, REM: Int. Eng. J., 69 (4), 479 (2016).
    • Ma, M., “The significance of dosing sequence in the flocculation of hematite”, Eng. Sci., 73, 51 (2012).
    • Krouti, O., Chval, Z., Skelton, A. A. and Predota, M., “Computer simulations of quartz (101)−Water interface over a range of pH values”, Phys. Chem. C, 119, 9274 (2015).
    • Prakash, S., Das, B. and Venugopal, R., “Magnetic separation of calcite using selective magnetite coating”, Electr. Sep., 10, 1 (1990).
    • Lu, D., Hu, Y., Li, Y., Jiang, T., Sun, W. and Wang, Y., “Reverse flotation of ultrafine magnetic concentrate by using mixed anionic/cationic collectors”, Probl. Miner. Process., 53 (2), 724 (2017).