Assessment of Potential Material Reprocessing of Erdenet Mine Tailings
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Date
2020-06-07
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German Mongolian Institute for Resouce and Technology
Abstract
The objective of this study is to define possible ways to reprocessing Erdenet mine tailings with potential metal recovery. These tailings have relatively high copper and molybdenum concentration (e.g. tailings III has Cu: 0.2-0.5%, Mo: 0.1-0.2% content), some of which are concerned as reusable deposits. But the measured concentration of metals does not have a homogeneous population over the whole tailings due to settling of the materials, reclamation of process water and drying of the materials, etc. The tailing facility is one of the largest in the world with a total area of 18.6 km2. Over 40 years of history of Erdenet processing plant, the tailing has been collected in the tailing dam and now becomes the biggest resource for research.
The surface samples were taken from 5 different areas with various depths.
Furthermore, physical analysis (Size distribution analysis) and chemical analysis (X-ray Fluorescence element analysis) were done.
Based on physical and chemical characteristics, the possible applicable method to reprocessing tailing was investigated. As a result of this study, the possibility of using Erdenet Mine tailings has subjected to technical and economic considerations.