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We often use beneficiation reagents in the beneficiation, which will cause the tailings water to contain some harmful impurities. Therefore, before the tailings water is discharged, we need to purify the tailings water.
The purification method of tailings water depends on the composition and quantity of harmful substances, the type of the water system in which the tailing water will be discharged, and the requirements for the quality of the backwater.
It can be divided into three categories:
#1. Natural precipitation-use tailings sedimentation tanks (or other types of sedimentation tanks) to remove the tailings particles in the tailings liquid;
#2. Physical and chemical purification- use adsorbent materials to adsorb and remove certain harmful substances;
#3. Chemical purification-add appropriate amount of chemical agents to promote the conversion of harmful substances into harmless substances.
The main method is to use the tailings sedimentation tank to precipitate the tailings water in the pond to achieve the purpose of clarification. If the particle size of tailings particles is extremely fine (such as tungsten-tin gravity separation tailings, some flotation tailings), the tailings water is often gelatinous, in order to quickly clarify the tailings water, we can add a coagulant (such as lime, aluminum sulfate, etc.) to accelerate the precipitation of particles.
For example, the tailings of a tin ore dressing plant have extremely fine particle sizes and cannot be clarified after 20 days and nights of precipitation. However, after adding 75 grams of lime solution with 40% active ingredient to each cubic meter of tailings water, the tailings can quickly settle, and after precipitation for about 2 hours, the transparency reaches 30 cm.
When the tailings water contains metal ions such as copper, lead, nickel, etc., we often use adsorption purification methods to remove them. Commonly used adsorbents are dolomite, roasted dolomite, activated carbon, lime and so on. Before purification, the adsorbent needs to be crushed to a certain particle size, and then fully mixed and reacted with the tailings water to achieve the purpose of sedimentation and purification of the tailings water.
Lead-zinc ore powder has the property of adsorbing organic agents, so it is often used to remove organic agents such as xanthate, black medicine, turpentine, and oleic acid. The dosage is 200 mg of lead-zinc ore per mg of organic chemicals.
When the tailings water contains single cyanide or double cyanide compounds, bleaching powder, ferrous sulfate and lime are generally used as purifying agents for chemical purification. Lead-zinc ore and activated carbon can also be used as adsorbents for adsorption purification.
In short, the purification method of tailings water is mainly selected according to the types of harmful substances contained in the tailings water and the degree of purification required. At the same time, consideration should be given to preferentially adopting methods with a wide range of purifier sources, simple processes, and cost-effective methods. The commonly used tailings water purification methods are summarized as follows:
Purification Method | Application Range |
Lime | Remove Copper and Nickel Ion |
Dolomite | Remove Lead Ion |
Roasted Dolomite | Remove Copper and Lead Ion |
Zinc and Lead Ore Powder | Remove Organic Flotation Reagent Remove Cyanide |
Bleaching Powder | Remove Cyanide |
Ferrous Sulfate | Remove Cyanide |
Activated Carbon | Adsorb Heavy Metal Ion Adsorb Cyanide |
The above is the purification method of the beneficiation tailings water. In actual production, you can choose the purification method and process suitable for your beneficiation plant according to your own beneficiation process and tailings composition to achieve the highest economic benefits. Besides, we have two articles about tailing water process, you can click the article name to read them. They are Hazards of Mineral Processing Wastewater in Flotation Plant and Treatment of Mineral Processing Wastewater in Flotation Plant.
If you have any questions about the content of this article, or want to design a tailings treatment method or process, please contact the online customer service to communicate, or leave a message on the website, we will talk to you in detail as soon as possible.
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