Mining Tailings Management
2018-04-24 15:26Introduction：Water Management is becoming a priority in Mining applications. Recent disasters from all over the world clearly demonstrate the dangers of traditional mining water management. Tailings dam failures have been on the rise due to extreme or
Water Management is becoming a priority in Mining applications.
Recent disasters from all over the world clearly demonstrate the dangers of traditional mining water management. Tailings dam failures have been on the rise due to extreme or unexpected weather conditions such as heavy rains or earthquakes, overloading the tailings dam beyond design, or poor dam management practices.
The risks and failures of tailings dams could be completely avoided by dewatering and dry-stacking the tailings.
In order to efficiently and economically dewater the mining tailings for dry-stacking, large filter presses are required. Diemme Filtration, a brand of Aqseptence Group, has been at the forefront of large filter press development with a focus on reducing operational costs while achieving the driest filter cake possible.
Dry filter cakes, formed by high filtration pressures, can be stacked safely.
This is an example of a Diemme Filtration tailings dewatering plant. Our customer decided to convert from their old tailings dam into a dry stacking facility. They installed a filter press dewatering building, a cake conveying system and a fully automatic stacker.
Dry stacking enables concurrent site reclamation leading to faster and less expensive mine closure as well as reduced reclamation bond costs at the start of the project.
Advantages of a dry-stacking facility are:
· No engineered dam
· Minimum seepage and infiltration
· Filtered tailings have the needed moisture to facilitate optimal compaction of filter cake
· Improved stability and seismic performance
· Reduced long-term post-closure water management.
This plant is comprised of 6 of our Diemme’s large GHT filter presses each able to produce compact filter cakes providing for very stable dry stacking of the waste.
The filtered cake is transferred by conveyor from the filter press building to the dry stacking area.
Here the dry material is distributed in rows formed by a stacking conveyor and compacted by a bulldozer.
This process is saving the storage of 12.000 m3/d of slurry and consuming only a fraction of the space required if the tailings were not filtered.
With the implementation of advancing technology and the use of Diemme Filter Presses, mining facilities now have the opportunity to eliminate the risks associated with traditional methods of water management.
