Ultrasound supported flocculation of borate tailings with differently charged flocculants

Abstract

Mining activities are followed by mineral processing and wet beneficiation methods which generate a significant amount of tailings. Slime fractions are discharged to the tailing ponds with associated process water and this causes storage and disposal difficulties and creates severe environmental problems. Therefore, dewatering these tailings is necessary for both economic and environmental aspects. In this study, the flocculation behaviors of the boron tailings from Agildere and Hisarcik (Turkey) were studied in the presence of anionic, cationic, and non-ionic flocculants. The results showed that the free settling condition was optimum for the Agildere sample. On the contrary, the settling rate of the Hisarcik sample increased considerably by the use of flocculants with a significant decrease in the turbidity of the suspension. Flocculation experiments indicated that the effect of the flocculant type on the flocculation of the Hisarcik sample can be generally ordered as anionic>cationic>non-ionic>no-flocculant. Furthermore, ultrasound was used as a supporting application. The results indicated that although the ultrasound application decreased the settling rate of both samples, lower sediment bed heights were obtained for the Hisarcik sample with ultrasound because of the formation of a more compact sediment bed in the presence of ultrasound.