Abstract

BLIGHT, G.; COPELAND, A.; JARDINE, P.  and  MACROBERT, C.. Measurements on freshly-deposited surfaces of two platinum tailings dams. J. S. Afr. Inst. Min. Metall. [online]. 2012, vol.112, n.11, pp.911-917. ISSN 2411-9717.

As part of an investigation of possible water-saving measures at Anglo American Platinum's Mogalakwena Mine in Limpopo, South Africa, a study was made of conditions on the wet beaches of two adjacent tailings dams, each serving a separate plant on the mine. For one of the dams, a special catamaran was designed and constructed to enable the full length of wet beaches to be accessed and sampled immediately after a layer of tailings had been deposited. For the other dam, the wet beach was accessed using conveyor belting and scaffold planks. The length of the beaches was 400 m on the first dam, and 200 m on the second, and each was sampled at 50 m intervals. The parameters reported in this paper, for both beaches, are: ► Water content profiles along each beach from the surface to as deep as 2.5 m, at times ranging from 12 hours to 6 weeks from the end of deposition ► Particle size distributions at the surface, down the full length of the beaches ► Measurements of feed relative density, tonnage and volume, decant and drain flow volumes, as well as rainfall and evaporation for both dams. The surface water contents shortly after deposition have been used to establish the relative density of the settled, decanted tailings and its variation down the beach. This data, combined with the decant and drainage flows, is used to establish the calculated and actual water recoveries from both dams.

Keywords : tailings; water recovery; evaporation; settling; desaturation; thickening..

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