Abstract
ABSTRACT Iron ore processing plants of the Gol-E-Gohar mining and industrial company have three thickeners. The thickeners’ underflow's is pumped to a tailings dam, with the solid content of about 50%. To increase water recovery, this research investigated the effect of the particle size distribution on the dewatering circuit design of tailings. Physical and chemical characteristics of the thickeners’ underflows (solid content, XRF, XRD, density, etc.) are determined and three different dewatering circuit designs considered. In the first design, only a pressure filter was considered for each stream separately, and in the second design, all streams were combined, and then particles coarser than 1 mm were removed using the screen and dewatered by a pressure filter. In addition, in the third design, all streams are combined and particles coarser than 250 microns are removed using hydrocyclone-screen. Particles smaller than 250 microns are dewatered using a pressure filter. The results showed that the required filtration area (m2) related to the dewatering circuits to reach 20% moisture of plants’ tailings are 1074, 926, and 912 m2, respectively. Finally, it is determined that because of the positive impact of coarse particles on the filtration performance and the operational problems related to the particles larger than 1 mm, all streams must be combined and dewatered using a pressure filter.
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