Use of an Environmentally Friendly Polymer to Reduce the Water Content in Tailings Slurry
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Use of an Environmentally Friendly Polymer to Reduce the Water Content in Tailings Slurry Yongsik Jeong 1 & Kwangmin Kim 1 Received: 28 October 2019 / Accepted: 23 June 2020 # Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc. 2020
Abstract Conventional tailings slurry contains a significant amount of water, and water management is key to ensuring the stability of a tailings storage facility (TSF). Simply reducing the water content in the slurry before discharging it from the mill could be an effective way to improve TSF water management. This study investigated the potential for using an environmentally friendly polymer as a new drag reduction agent (DRA) to reduce frictional pressure loss and also conserve water. It entailed conducting pipe loop tests to assess the polymer’s effect on pressure loss in tailings flow and then applying the test results to validate a numerical model using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The model was also used to determine the polymer’s optimal concentrations at given solid concentrations and flow rates, its effect on energy efficiency for tailings transportation, and its potential for saving water. A case study for a mid-sized, hard-rock mine with a throughput of 50,000 t/day found that the solid concentration could be increased from 30 to 45% with no pressure loss by applying 1996 m3 of the polymer per day. Adding the polymer also resulted in water savings of 57,552 m3/day. The results of this study demonstrated the potential for using the new DRA not only to improve TSF stability but also to save water. Keywords Tailings . Drag reduction agent . Pipe loop test . Computational fluid dynamics simulation . Water savings . Specific energy consumption
1 Introduction The tailings slurry that remains after extracting valuable ores is mainly a mixture of crushed rock and mill processing fluid [1]. Water content is key to the rheological behavior of tailings slurry in a pipeline. Depending on their water content, slurries can be classified as conventional, thickened, paste, or cake. Conventional slurry contains 30–40% solids. Tailings are usually transported through pipelines via a conventional centrifugal pumping system and discharged in the form of slurry via a peripheral discharge system [2]. Figure 1 shows tailings types and pumping systems based on water content. Water management is critical to ensuring the stability of a tailings storage facility (TSF). It is particularly important for
* Kwangmin Kim [email protected] Yongsik Jeong [email protected] 1
Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
upstream-type TSFs, which are popular because of their simplicity and relatively low construction costs. Despite their popularity, upstream TFSs are particularly vulnerable structurally and, historically, they account for most failures. Rico [4] evaluated 147 TSF failure cases in the world and found two main causes: unexpected weather conditions (heavy rain) and improper TSF management. The recent failure of Samarco tailings em
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