Mineral paste production from phosphate rock tailings

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Silva,André Carlos
Data de Publicação: 2015
Outros Autores: Silva,Elenice Maria Schons, Silva Junior,Ângelo Pereira da, Arruda,João Paulo Aparecido, Vaz,Vitor Rodrigues de Araújo
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: REM. Revista Escola de Minas (Online)
Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0370-44672015000100103
Resumo: The dewatering stage is among the most important industrial unit operations, and is widely adopted in many different industries. Nowadays, mineral processing tailings disposal is a big problem due to the environmental degradation it causes. The phosphate rock processing in Anglo American Phosphate Brazil, situated in Catalão/ Go/Brazil, generates around 180 t/h of tailings for a plant feed of 480 t/h (approximately 37.5% of the processing plant feed), with 5 to 10% of solids and approximately 14% of P2O5. Nowadays, the tailings are sent directly to the tailings dam. The present work proposes paste production using the tailings from the phosphate rock processing plant. Through decantation of a tailings sample, a clarified liquid was obtained and drained. The decanted pulp then went through a second stage consisting of vacuum filtration. Flocculant addition in this stage generated a faster sedimentation rate and a higher dewatering performance in next stage of dewatering, because the flocculated material was retained by the filter medium instead of passing through it. The results were satisfactory for paste tailings production with a solid percentage of around 65%.