Improving Flocculation Performance of Copper Flotation Tailings by Conventional and New Technology Polymers

The dewatering of tailings is one of the serious challenges that the mining and mineral processing industries have encountered internationally. Solid-liquid separation methods are applied to wastewater, which generally consists of fine particles and water; fine particles are settled in thickeners by the flocculation method and the cleaned water is reused in the plants. This study investigated the flocculation performances of a new generation UMA (Unique Molecular Architecture) technology polymer and conventional polymers in the solid-liquid separation process of the copper flotation tailings. The effects of pH, flocculant type and dose, mixing duration, and rate on flocculation were examined using jar experiments. It was seen that better flocculation performance was obtained with the UMA polymer (Magnofloc 5250) compared to conventional polymers in dewatering copper tailings. The optimum polymer dosage was found to be 20 g/t based on test results for a 10% solid ratio. All utilized polymers, with the exception of the nonionic polymer, achieved turbidity values of less than 20 NTU when used at this dose. At a polymer dose of 20 g/t, the desired high precipitation rate values were obtained with only two polymers (Magnofloc 5250 and SPP 355). With Magnafloc 5250, a UMA (Unique Molecular Architecture) polymer, the best flocculation performance (lowest turbidity value of 1.1 NTU and maximum settling velocity value of 11.49 m/h) was achieved. 200 rpm of mixing rate and 1 min time were found to be the optimum mixing conditions.