Abstract

This paper describes an economical and eco-friendly technology that utilises carbide slag to treat mine and ore washing wastewater (MOW) and reuses the treated wastewater in a scheelite flotation circuit. The results of systematic bench-scale and industrial-scale experiments indicate that the wastewater reuse process can reliably improve the WO3 grade with negligible effect on the recovery of scheelite. At the Yuanjing processing plant, the WO3 enrichment ratio improved from 17.4 to 23.6 and the recovery was maintained at approximately 79.2 % when recycled wastewater was used. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses consistently implied that the interaction between the collector of sodium oleate and scheelite in the recycled wastewater was stronger than that in plant water. Specifically, the adsorption of Ca2+ on the scheelite surface and the formation of colloidal complexes by Ca2+ and oleate ions were responsible for the superior selectivity, while the gangue minerals such as quartz were effectively depressed by the depressant of water glass. Consequently, the treated MOW could be a suitable alternative to reduce freshwater consumption in mining areas, which is of great significance for the mining and mineral processing industries.

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