Flocculation, dewatering and sedimentation behaviour of mine backfill slurry in deep cone thickener (DCT)

Backfilling technology is recognized as a consensus to achieve green and safe developing of mineral resources that could effectively fill the underground goafs using mine waste and tailings. As one of indispensable means of efficient solid -liquid separation, the deep cone thickener (DCT) has become an important gripper for treatment of mine wastes consist of waste rocks, mineral processing tailings and metallurgical slags, which eventually obtaining stable, high concentration paste backfilling slurry. However, it still faces tricky problems in industrial operations such as poor stability of underflow concentration and excessive frequent system structural failure. To further explore the scientific understanding and regulation, this paper focuses on the sedimentation, thickening, and dewatering mechanisms in DCT, systematically reviews the breakthroughs of particles feeds migration, collision and agglomerates, discusses the multi -scale morphological features of flocs growth, analyses the structural features of DCT (rake frame, feed well, etc.) and its influence on underflow concentration, explores mathematical modelling and the prediction of key parameter distribution (shear forces, solid concentration, fluid velocity, turbulence, etc.) inside DCT, and proposes the optimization and controlling methods in DCT operations. These discussions proposed in this paper further deepening the understanding of tailing thickening procedure via DCT, which could give some reference to related the researches of future generations.