Mineralogical Characterization of Iron Ore Tailings from the Quadrilatero Ferrifero, Brazil, by Eletronic Quantitative Mineralogy

Abstract

The mineralogical characterization studies search for the best processing route, with the lowest environmental impact, aiming to improve the use of mineral resources. The electronic quantitative mineralogy (EQM) provides quickly and accurately great information about the characteristics of these materials. This work aims to characterize iron ore tailings by EQM as the main tool. It has selected seven samples of itabirite ores flotation tailings from the main mining regions of the Quadrilatero Ferrifero, Brazil. All samples were mostly composed by quartz and iron minerals, with a low presence of mixture particles of these minerals-less than 20% of the sample mass. Due to the difference between the size of particles of quartz and iron minerals, it has observed an opportunity to reprocess the fractions-37μm + 5μm of the studied tailings, with a potential recovery of 12% of the total sample mass generated for AM4, AM6 and AM7 and more than 5% for samples AM1, AM2, AM3 and AM5.

Characterization of Magnetic Tailings from Phosphate-Ore Processing in Alto Paranaíba

“…Mining companies have been investing in research with tailings obtained from ores processing. They aim to mitigate the environmental impact caused by the dams used for their conditioning and to reuse these materials 1 . Brazil has been researching the development of products based on the characterization of materials that do not yet have specific applications, such as non liberated iron and titanium oxides [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] .…”

“…They aim to mitigate the environmental impact caused by the dams used for their conditioning and to reuse these materials 1 . Brazil has been researching the development of products based on the characterization of materials that do not yet have specific applications, such as non liberated iron and titanium oxides [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] . Brazil has some tailings that contain important amount of iron minerals that can be recycled in the framework of a circular economy context and natural resources conservation.…”

“…Brazil has some tailings that contain important amount of iron minerals that can be recycled in the framework of a circular economy context and natural resources conservation. The study of physical, chemical, and mineralogical properties has led to the discovery of new tailings processing technologies, novel alternatives for the sustainable management of ores, resources conservation as well as the definition of the best reuse procedures for commercially exploitable minerals present in the tailings 1 .…”

Geoenvironmental Study of Gold Mining Tailings in a Circular Economy Context: Santa Barbara, Minas Gerais, Brazil

“…Reuse and reprocessing of tailings are possible approaches but require characterization efforts supported by robust geochemical and mineralogical techniques. These include x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) in association with quantitative electronic mineralogy (Pires et al 2019) for mineralogical characterization, automatic quantification of mineral phases, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) (e.g. Guanira et al 2020;Martin et al 1997;Novhe et al 2018;Parbhakar-Fox 2016;Shi et al 2009;Silva et al 2004).…”

“…Acid mine drainage (AMD) remediation has high costs, but could represent a source of metals, as shown by Skoronski et al (2017), through recovery of Al and Fe contaminants in usable forms, and show new forms to minimize the cost of water treatment (Akinwekomi et al 2020, Ryan et al 2017). The work of Antunes et al (2010);Hedin (2003); Silva et al (2019); and Valente et al (2016) indicate the potential of recovering ochre-precipitates from passive AMD treatment, for use as pigments and in the ceramic sector. Also, Grande et al (2013) presented a system to neutralize AMD and recover its metal load, using energy obtained from renewable sources.…”