Dewatering tests of iron ore tailings using process cyclones/vibrating screens in south and southeast systems of the vale

• Published in: Tecnologia em Metalurgia, Materiais e Mineracao Vol. 20100919; pp. 350 - 354
• Main Authors: Borges, Alysson Antonio, Ribeiro, Claudio Henrique Teixeira, Silva, Marcone Ferreira, Da Silva, Washington Pirete
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2010
• ISSN: 2176-1515

The increasing demand for iron ore and environmental legislation increasingly hard put the current model of tailings disposal in an unfavorable position. An alternative is the disposal of these wastes in the form of dumps, such as wastes dumps. Filtration is a technique widely used in the dewatering products currently generated in the mining and appears as the first alternative. However, this is a process which demands high cost for both investment and operation. Thus, this article presents a case study of another alternative for dewatering flotation tailings using a system consisting of cyclone with several sets of apex and vortex, vibrating screen with adjustable operating frequency, centrifugal slurry pump with speed control by inverter frequency, flow meters of cyclone feed and pressure gauge cyclone feed controlling this pump slurry, where this entire structure is mounted inside a container on a truck and allows easy movement between different sites in the Vale. The results obtained with the flotation tailings of Timbopeba Mine have been promising and showed real possibility of using this concept to dewatering the flotation tailings.