5 Kinds of Gold Mine Tailings Treatment Methods

The tailings have low content of useful components and currently cannot be economically used in industrial production. They are also the main components of industrial solid waste. With the continuous exploitation of gold mine resources and the progress of the beneficiation technology, the discharge of gold mine tailings has also increased year by year, which inevitably brings a series of problems and further stimulates the treatment of gold mine tailings.

In addition to the increasing number of gold mine tailings, gold ore beneficiation often uses cyanide gold extraction or flotation. Cyanide and flotation reagents must be added during the process, resulting in a certain amount of cyanide and flotation reagents remaining in the gold mine tailings. Therefore, the following problems often exist in the discharge of gold tailings:

1. Long-term stacking occupies a lot of land.

2. Pollution of the environment: Chemical agents must be added during the treatment process. These chemical residues will remain in the tailings, and the heavy metals, toxic and harmful pollutants contained in the tailings, if they flow downstream or infiltrate the ground, even extremely fine tailings sand particles Drifting with the wind will cause harm to the surrounding environment.

3. Resource waste: Restricted by the previous level of beneficiation technology, a large number of valuable resources are still left in the tailings and have not been comprehensively utilized.

4. Potential safety hazards: The tailings inventory is in danger of collapse and landslide.

Based on the above problems, the treatment and comprehensive utilization of gold mine tailings are imminent. At present, the common gold mine tailings treatment methods and comprehensive utilization mainly include the following ways：

1. Re-selection of gold mine tailings

The gold content in gold mine tailings is generally 0.2-0.6g/t. Due to the backward mining and dressing technology, some gold and silver are lost in the tailings. At the same time, most of the gold ore is accompanied by copper, lead, zinc, iron, sulfur and other elements. With the advancement of beneficiation technology, gold mine tailings can not only recover gold and silver, but also comprehensively recover valuable elements according to the nature of the tailings. Therefore, tailings re-selection has become a major trend in the current gold mine tailings treatment.

2. Dewatering of gold mine tailings

The dry tailings discharge process eases the storage pressure of the tailings reservoir, reduces the hidden safety hazards of the tailings reservoir, and the utilization of backwater reduces the pressure of sewage treatment and saves the production and operation costs of the mine. It is a national green environmental protection mine construction requirement.

3. Production of building materials

The recovery of valuable elements from tailings can only comprehensively recover a small amount of valuable elements, but it does not substantially reduce the amount of tailings, and it still cannot fundamentally solve the problems of tailings stacking occupying a large amount of land, destroying and affecting the ecological environment.

Take gold mines as an example. The types of deposits are complex and the types of surrounding rocks are diverse. Some deposits contain few metal minerals and gangue minerals are relatively pure. Gold mine tailings can be used directly as important non-metallic raw materials or building materials, such as bricks, preparation of glass-ceramics, production of aerated concrete, portland cement, etc.

4.Mine filling

It is one of the effective ways to fill the mined areas of mines by using tailings, especially for mining companies that have nowhere to set up gold tailing ponds, using tailings to backfill the mined areas has a greater environment and economic significance.

As a good filling material, tailings can use local materials and avoid the cost of collecting, crushing and transporting the filling gravel. For high-value gold ore bodies, tailings can improve the extraction conditions of the pillars and reduce the dilution loss. Add an appropriate amount of cement or other cementing materials to the filler, which condense the loose tailings into a solid with a certain strength.

5. Reclamation

Land reclamation is also an effective way. Some measures should be taken to plant crops of agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry on the tailings pond of gold mine, vigorous crops can protect the soil and strengthen the embankment, which has a positive effect on protecting the environment and preventing pollution.

The above is the common method of gold mine tailings treatment and comprehensive utilization. In the actual application of the concentrator, it is recommended to consider the nature of gold mine tailings, the scale of the tailings, and the rate of return on investment to determine a suitable gold mine tailings treatment and comprehensive utilization method. We can customize reasonable gold mine tailings processing equipment for you.