Design and Analysis of Dewatering Circuits for a Chromite Processing Plant Tailing Slurry

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present investigation aimed to understand dewatering amenability of the tailing slurry generated during the beneficiation of chromite ore. The tailing includes mainly ultrafine particles with a concentration of Cr+6 which causes environmental and storage issues. Several dewatering techniques were investigated, including settling by using two different thickeners (high rate thickening and paste thickening), pressure filtration, as well as classification by using hydrocyclone. This paper explains the results obtained in various stages of the dewatering process. Further, different dewatering circuits were examined for the effective dewatering of the tailing slurry, and the optimum solutions were discussed. It is also concluded that up to 97% of the water can be recovered and recycled from such tailing slurry by adopting an efficient dewatering circuit.