Ore treatment plant, also called dressing plant or concentrating mill, is heavy water consumer. The reason is the mineral processing process need huge volume water, which is used in the washing process and flotation process to separate valuable mineral and useless mineral. Valuable mineral will form hydroxide or salt in acid or alkali. The undissolved matter will be separated by flocculation. The tailing wastewater of mineral processing contain multiple harmful substance, namely heavy metal ion and mining chemical. Heavy mental ion includes copper, zinc, lead, nickel, barium, cadmium and rare element. In some special cases, there will be arsenic or mercuric phenate. Mining chemical includes cyanide, xanthate, black catching agent and pine oil. If the wastewater of mineral processing is not treated well, it will be great harmful or hazardous.
Mining Polyacrylamide has the role of precipitating agent and stabilizer. In the treatment of tailing, polyacrylamide separates the water and gangue mineral. It acts as precipitating agent and bridge the organic colloidal particle and water-soluble substance. After the bridging, the sedimentation efficiency is greatly increased. With the help of mining polyacrylamide, the separation speed of solid and liquid in the tailing wastewater is increased. In the same time, the recovery rate and yield of mineral are also increased.
In the mineral process, polyacrylamide acts as stabilizer to prevent the sediment and coherence of rock particle, which help keep the stability and mobility of ore pulp. The mining efficiency and mineral recovery rate are both increased. Many mineral industries need polyacrylamide in the mineral process, including: coal, gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, zinc, aluminum, uranium, nickel, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, salt, tungsten and a bunch of rare metals. For different mineral industry, the mining polyacrylamide used is different. There are two main types polyacrylamide used: anionic polyacrylamide and nonionic polyacrylamide. For minerals that use washing and flotation process, like coal ore, iron ore, phosphate, aluminum ore, copper ore, gold ore, zinc ore, sand washing, anionic polyacrylamide and nonionic polyacrylamide are used normally. Nonionic polyacrylamide are mostly used in the acid or high salinity solution.
Below are application samples of polyacrylamide in mineral process:
1. Aluminum ore: the suspension, clarification, waste water treatment, concentration, sediment and filtration process all need polyacrylamide
2. Calcium carbonate: the concentration process need polyacrylamide
3. Copper ore, nickel ore, zinc ore and titanium dioxide: after dissolve in acid, the clarification need polyacrylamide
4. Phosphate: the waste water treatment need polyacrylamide
5. Sand washing and coal washing: the sediment and filtration process need polyacrylamide
6. Gold ore: after dissolve in acid, the clarification need cationic polyacrylamide
7. Coal with too much clay: the suspension particle is tiny. Weak anionic (low hydrolysis degree, around 10) polyacrylamide is used.
To find the most suitable polyacrylamide for ore treatment plant, lab test is needed first. After lab test, pilot test is needed on machine in the plant to check performance in the real situation. After test, the polyacrylamide type will be finally confirmed.