Environmental desulfurization as a tool to improve mine waste management and mine site reclamation

环境脱硫是改善矿山废物管理和矿场复垦的工具

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-03890
• 负责人: Demers, Isabelle
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=636229
• 关键词: Environmental; desulfurization; tool; improve; mine

Mine waste management, including mine tailings, is the most important challenge of mining operations. An upstream-oriented approach would be beneficial for optimal tailings management. Environmental desulfurization, performed by froth flotation, allows recovering most sulfide minerals in the tailings to reduce significantly its reactivity, thus making it chemically suitable as cover material for mine waste reclamation. However, no studies were performed on the effect of desulfurization on tailings hydrogeological properties. Those properties, specifically particle size distribution, may be altered by the desulfurization process and ultimately affect the performance of cover systems made of desulfurized tailings. Furthermore, the usual methods to determine the chemical adequacy of materials for cover systems involve static and kinetic tests, which tend to be inadequate for materials that have low reactivity, and provide very limited information on long term performance of materials as covers. Hydrogeochemical numerical modelling was used to predict the long term behaviour of low reactive waste rock; however more work is required to integrate specific aspects related to low reactive material. Another aspect that deserves investigation is the possibility of using environmental desulfurization to reprocess old tailing ponds to facilitate site reclamation by producing decontaminated tailings that reduce the environmental liability of the site, while at the same time to recover valuable metals that were not recovered in the past.

矿山废物管理，包括矿山尾矿，是采矿作业最重要的挑战。以上游为导向的方法有利于尾矿的优化管理。通过泡沫浮选进行环境脱硫，可以回收尾矿中的大多数硫化物矿物，从而大大降低其反应性，从而使其在化学上适合作为矿山废物回收的覆盖材料。但脱硫对尾矿水文地质性质的影响尚未进行研究。这些特性，特别是粒度分布，可能会因脱硫过程而改变，并最终影响由脱硫尾矿制成的覆盖体系的性能。此外，确定用于盖层系统的材料的化学充足性的通常方法包括静态和动力学试验，这些方法往往不适用于反应性低的材料，并且提供的关于盖层材料长期性能的信息非常有限。利用水文地球化学数值模拟对低活性废石的长期行为进行了预测；然而，需要更多的工作来整合与低反应性材料相关的具体方面。另一个值得研究的方面是利用环境脱硫技术对旧尾矿库进行再处理的可能性，通过生产净化后的尾矿来减少场地的环境责任，从而促进场地的复垦，同时回收过去未回收的有价金属。