A Quantitative Particle-Based Approach for the Geometallurgical Assessment of Tailings Deposits
Tailings generated during ore processing may host significant residual contents of valuable commodities, including critical metals. The particle properties of the tailings, such as mineralogy, particle size, and the surface liberation of ore minerals, strongly control processing behaviour. This stud...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Earth Science, Systems and Society |
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| Online Access: | https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.3389/esss.2024.10102 |
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| author | Rosie Blannin Max Frenzel Raimon Tolosana-Delgado Kai Bachmann Alexandra Gomez Escobar Lucas Pereira Jens Gutzmer |
| author_facet | Rosie Blannin Max Frenzel Raimon Tolosana-Delgado Kai Bachmann Alexandra Gomez Escobar Lucas Pereira Jens Gutzmer |
| author_sort | Rosie Blannin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Tailings generated during ore processing may host significant residual contents of valuable commodities, including critical metals. The particle properties of the tailings, such as mineralogy, particle size, and the surface liberation of ore minerals, strongly control processing behaviour. This study explores a novel combination of methods for incorporating particle data, derived from automated mineralogy, into geometallurgical models of tailings deposits to better understand their reprocessing potential and the economic feasibility of re-mining. This was achieved through binning of different particle types, geostatistical modelling of particle bin frequencies, and bootstrap resampling to reconstruct particle populations. The spatial distributions of processing-relevant particle properties throughout the tailings deposit were predicted with corresponding uncertainties. There are clear systematic trends in the spatial distributions of different particle types, resulting from the sedimentary-style deposition of the tailings. For instance, the tailings nearer the dam walls comprise coarser, silicate-rich particles, while fine-grained and well-liberated sulphide mineral particles are more abundant in the centre of the tailings deposit. As a result, robust models could be developed for the spatial distributions of particle size and mineralogy, which strongly control the sorting of particles during deposition, and other related properties, such as sulphide mineral grain sizes. Finally, a bulk sulphide flotation process was simulated and acid mine drainage potential estimated using the interpolated particle data. Around 58% of the sulphide minerals present could be recoverable by flotation, with the recoverable sulphide portion decreasing towards the centre of the TSF due to the fine-grained nature of the sulphide minerals. The acid mine drainage potential of the tailings is estimated to be moderate to high, indicating that the carbonate minerals present are not sufficient to neutralise the high acid-generating potential of the sulphide minerals. Overall, this study demonstrates how particle-based geometallurgical models can be developed and utilised for practical applications, with the aim of improving the accuracy of resource and reserve estimations of tailings deposits and the sustainable and responsible management of anthropogenic resources. The methodology proposed here can be easily transferred to other tailings deposits. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-f11d68be8e3840a9b2e40dad44cc9c1c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2634-730X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
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| series | Earth Science, Systems and Society |
| spelling | doaj-art-f11d68be8e3840a9b2e40dad44cc9c1c2025-01-10T14:04:55ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Earth Science, Systems and Society2634-730X2024-12-014110.3389/esss.2024.10102A Quantitative Particle-Based Approach for the Geometallurgical Assessment of Tailings DepositsRosie Blannin0Max Frenzel1Raimon Tolosana-Delgado2Kai Bachmann3Alexandra Gomez Escobar4Lucas Pereira5Jens Gutzmer61WH Bryan Mining Geology Research Centre, Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia2Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Freiberg, Germany2Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Freiberg, Germany2Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Freiberg, Germany3Faculdade de Ciências, Instituto Dom Luiz, Universidade de Lisboa Lisboa, Portugal2Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Freiberg, Germany2Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Freiberg, GermanyTailings generated during ore processing may host significant residual contents of valuable commodities, including critical metals. The particle properties of the tailings, such as mineralogy, particle size, and the surface liberation of ore minerals, strongly control processing behaviour. This study explores a novel combination of methods for incorporating particle data, derived from automated mineralogy, into geometallurgical models of tailings deposits to better understand their reprocessing potential and the economic feasibility of re-mining. This was achieved through binning of different particle types, geostatistical modelling of particle bin frequencies, and bootstrap resampling to reconstruct particle populations. The spatial distributions of processing-relevant particle properties throughout the tailings deposit were predicted with corresponding uncertainties. There are clear systematic trends in the spatial distributions of different particle types, resulting from the sedimentary-style deposition of the tailings. For instance, the tailings nearer the dam walls comprise coarser, silicate-rich particles, while fine-grained and well-liberated sulphide mineral particles are more abundant in the centre of the tailings deposit. As a result, robust models could be developed for the spatial distributions of particle size and mineralogy, which strongly control the sorting of particles during deposition, and other related properties, such as sulphide mineral grain sizes. Finally, a bulk sulphide flotation process was simulated and acid mine drainage potential estimated using the interpolated particle data. Around 58% of the sulphide minerals present could be recoverable by flotation, with the recoverable sulphide portion decreasing towards the centre of the TSF due to the fine-grained nature of the sulphide minerals. The acid mine drainage potential of the tailings is estimated to be moderate to high, indicating that the carbonate minerals present are not sufficient to neutralise the high acid-generating potential of the sulphide minerals. Overall, this study demonstrates how particle-based geometallurgical models can be developed and utilised for practical applications, with the aim of improving the accuracy of resource and reserve estimations of tailings deposits and the sustainable and responsible management of anthropogenic resources. The methodology proposed here can be easily transferred to other tailings deposits.https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.3389/esss.2024.10102geostatisticsmodellingautomated mineralogyparticle dataresource potentialacid mine drainage |
| spellingShingle | Rosie Blannin Max Frenzel Raimon Tolosana-Delgado Kai Bachmann Alexandra Gomez Escobar Lucas Pereira Jens Gutzmer A Quantitative Particle-Based Approach for the Geometallurgical Assessment of Tailings Deposits Earth Science, Systems and Society geostatistics modelling automated mineralogy particle data resource potential acid mine drainage |
| title | A Quantitative Particle-Based Approach for the Geometallurgical Assessment of Tailings Deposits |
| title_full | A Quantitative Particle-Based Approach for the Geometallurgical Assessment of Tailings Deposits |
| title_fullStr | A Quantitative Particle-Based Approach for the Geometallurgical Assessment of Tailings Deposits |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Quantitative Particle-Based Approach for the Geometallurgical Assessment of Tailings Deposits |
| title_short | A Quantitative Particle-Based Approach for the Geometallurgical Assessment of Tailings Deposits |
| title_sort | quantitative particle based approach for the geometallurgical assessment of tailings deposits |
| topic | geostatistics modelling automated mineralogy particle data resource potential acid mine drainage |
| url | https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.3389/esss.2024.10102 |
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