Sulfidic mine tailings and marl waste rock as compatible resources in a microwave-assisted roasting process

Everaert, Maarten; Lemmens, Vincent; Atia, Thomas Abo; Spooren, Jeroen

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122628

Cited by 17 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Additionally, simulating the roasting conditions as a function of temperature by HSC Chemistry software (Figure S2), it was observed that above 15 500 °C the predominant iron phase was hematite, while copper and zinc were still present as sulfates, which are known to be more soluble at mild conditions than the corresponding oxides. Finally, previous studies conducted on the roasting of sulfidic tailings from the Iberian Pyrite Belt showed that the optimal leaching efficiencies for Cu and Zn were obtained after roasting of the solid material between 500 °C and 600 °C [56]. Therefore, 550 °C was selected as the roasting temperature for this study.…”

Section: Microwave Roasting Of Sulfidic Tailingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of Copper from Ammoniacal Leachates by Ion Flotation

Xanthopoulos

Kalebić

Kamariah

et al. 2021

J. Sustain. Metall.

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Sulfidic copper−lead−zinc tailings can pose a significant environmental threat, ranging from generation of acid mine drainage (AMD) to dam failures. On the other hand, they can also be considered as low-grade ore resources for zinc and copper provided that novel economically feasible metal extraction and metal recovery techniques are developed. Due to the low metal concentrations in these resources, the leaching will generate dilute leachates from which metal recovery is a challenge. Ion flotation is a foam separation technique capable of recovering metal ions from dilute aqueous leachates. In this paper, ion flotation was applied to separate copper from ammoniacal leachates of microwave-roasted sulfidic tailings samples. The sulfidic tailings were first roasted at 550 °C for 60 min, for the oxidation of sulfide minerals to more easily soluble sulfates using microwave assisted irradiation as heating source. The microwave-roasted material was then leached with a mixture of ammonia and ammonium carbonate solutions. The optimum leaching efficiencies of zinc (86%) and copper (75%) were obtained under the following conditions: liquid-to-solid ratio = 10 mL g -1 , T = 90 °C, [NH3+NH4 + ] = 4 mol L -1 , NH3:NH4 + = 2:1, t = 5 h. From the generated pregnant leach solution, it was possible to selectively separate 85% of copper to the foam phase by ion flotation, with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant, as colloidal tetraammine copper(II) dodecyl sulfate under the optimized conditions: [SDS]total = 5.85 mmol L -1 , [EtOH] = 0.5 % (v/v), ttotal = 5 h, flotation stages = 3. The zinc that remained in the solution after ion flotation was recovered by precipitation (95%) as basic zinc carbonate.

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Section: Microwave Roasting Of Sulfidic Tailingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of Copper from Ammoniacal Leachates by Ion Flotation

Xanthopoulos

Kalebić

Kamariah

et al. 2021

J. Sustain. Metall.

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“…Sulfidic tailings can be classified according to their sulfur content as low (S < 5%), medium (5% < S < 20%), and high sulfur-containing tailings (S > 20%) [57]. In order to discuss general aspects of the chemical composition of sulfidic tailings, examples of the chemical compositions of medium and highly sulfidic metal tailings were collected from 18 publications, most of which address solidification/stabilization and CPB of sulfidic tailings [25,31,42,[44][45][46][47][48]50,[52][53][54][55][56][58][59][60][61]. Table 4 shows a summary of the compositions collected.…”

Section: Chemical Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Table 6. Summary of mineral phase compositions of medium and highly sulfidic tailings obtained from the literature [12,43,44,49,50,53,54,59,61], expressed as percentages of crystalline phases. Sulfidic tailings have highly heterogeneous and deposit-specific mineralogy, which may include sulfides, silicates, oxides, hydroxides, phosphates, halides, and carbonates [5].…”

Section: Mineral Phase Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The oxidation of sulfide minerals can also take place as a result of thermal treatments, as observed in tailings subjected to roasting [59,108]. Unlike calcination, roasting is carried out at lower temperatures, typically half of those used in calcination, and mostly in sulfidic ores.…”

Section: Supplementary Cementitious Materials (Scms)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to overcome the challenges of using sulfidic mine tailings with high sulfur and metal(loid)s content in traditional building ceramics, novel and green cleaning techniques (e.g., microwave roasting, bioleaching) must be further developed and implemented. Such techniques must be applied to the tailings before incorporation in ceramics to remove undesirable sulfur [59,[167][168][169] and recover valuable metals [170][171][172][173][174]. These pre-treatment techniques need to be optimized and aligned with the end-product intrinsic characteristics, as well as the technical and aesthetical properties, and environmental compliance.…”

Section: Building Ceramicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the Potential for Utilization of Medium and Highly Sulfidic Mine Tailings in Construction Materials: A Review

et al. 2021

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Medium and highly sulfidic tailings are high-volume wastes that can lead to severe environmental damage if not properly managed. Due to the high content of sulfide minerals, these tailings can undergo weathering if put in contact with oxygen and water, generating acid mine drainage (AMD). The moderate-to-high sulfide content is also an important technical limitation for their implementation in the production of construction materials. This paper reviews the use of sulfidic tailings as raw material in construction products, with a focus on cement, concrete, and ceramics. When used as aggregates in concrete, this can lead to concrete degradation by internal sulfate attack. In building ceramics, their implementation without prior treatment is undesirable due to the formation of black reduction core, efflorescence, SOx emissions, and their associated costs. Moreover, their intrinsic low reactivity represents a barrier for their use as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and as precursors for alkali-activated materials (AAMs). Nevertheless, the production of calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement can be a suitable path for the valorization of medium and highly sulfidic tailings. Otherwise difficult to upcycle, sulfidic tailings could be used in the clinker raw meal as an alternative raw material. Not only the SO3 and SiO2-rich bulk material is incorporated into reactive clinker phases, but also some minor constituents in the tailings may contribute to the production of such low-CO2 cements at lower temperatures. Nevertheless, this valorization route remains poorly explored and demands further research.

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