Feasibility and cost of creating an iron-phosphate coating on pyrrhotite to prevent oxidation

Abstract

Acid mine drainage (AMD) occurs when sulfide minerals are exposed to an oxidizing environment. Most of the methods for preventing AMD are either short-term or high cost solutions. Coating with iron phosphate is a new technology for the abatement of AMD. It involves treating the sulfide with a coating solution composed of H2O2, KH2PO4, and sodium acetate as a buffer agent. The H2O2 oxidizes the sulfide surface and produces Fe3+ so that iron phosphate precipitates as a coating on the sulfide surface. Experiments performed under laboratory conditions prove that an iron phosphate coating can be established on pyrrhotite surfaces with optimal concentrations of the coating solution in the range of: 0.2M/0.01M H2O2, 0.2M KH2PO4, and 0.2M sodium acetate NaAc, depending on the experimental scale. Iron phosphate coating may be a long-term solution to the problem of AMD. The method would be easy to implement; the reagent cost, however, is not low enough, although it is lower than the conventional treatment with lime.