Mechanochemical Technology for Iron Extraction from Ore-Dressing Tailings

Abstract

The studies concerning ore-dressing waste processing at the enterprises of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly with the production of metals and building materials are described. About 1.8 billion tons of tailings have been stored there. A significant feature of deposit formation consists in the division of tailings by size and specific gravity using a water flow, since tailings are transported from the ore-dressing plant to the tailing pits by means of pipeline hydrotransport. The characteristics of tailings that originally showed wet magnetic separation of ferruginous quartzites taken from the Lebedinskoe deposit, as well as the methodology of investigation using a DESI-11 laboratory-scale disintegrator (Tallinn, Estonia), are presented. The authors have systematized the results for such tailings processing as: an agitation leaching in a percolator, agitation leaching after dry-state activation in a disintegrator, and reagent-driven leaching in a disintegrator. A regression analysis of experimental data has been performed, in which the iron extraction level depending on the values of variable factors inherent in the process is established. The used ore-dressing technologies are confined to the extraction limit, which results in the accumulation of processing tailings. The utilization of these tailings with traditional technologies is not profitable. However, the upgrading of ore-dressing processes could turn to be worthwhile with the use of hydrometallurgical and chemical technologies. It is shown that a promising direction in metal extraction from mining wastes consists in the combination of processing technologies based on the potentialities of the chemical ore-dressing and the activation in a disintegrator used in a joint manner. It has been determined that the mechanochemical activation of ore-dressing tailings in a disintegrator simultaneously with leaching can provide a significant increase in the extraction level, while the processing time is reduced hundredfold. Recommended technology could be in demand at mining enterprises with the prospects of switching for underground mining.