The existing tailings pond in our country is 12655, among which the large and medium-sized tailings above three levels are for 533, accounting for 4.2% of the totals, and among which the small tailings about four and five levels are for 12122, accounting for 95.8% of the totals. At present, mine tailing has caused serious environment problems and have huge safety hidden danger as well as has become an important problem for restricting the sustainable development of Chinaese mining economy and mining city. For this problem, we have to consider what the tailing can do for?
Tailing is mine waste which is discharged by mineral processing enterprise in a certain technical and economic conditions. But the tailing is not absolutely useless. It mostly contains a variety of colored and black rare earth and nonmetal minerals and is a very valuable and recoverable resources. Once the technology and economic conditions achieves, it can be effectively developed and utilized. What the tailing can do for? At present, the tailings are generally used as underground mining goaf filling that is to say the water and sand filling material or cement filling aggregate. And some are directly used to cover soil farmland, afforestation and planting crops in the tailing stacking field. In fact, the most economic benefit of tailings treatment is making sand and used as raw material for building materials. For example, the tailings can be used as raw material of cement, tile, aerated concrete, refractory materials, glass, ceramic, concrete aggregate. In addition, the tailings can replace a part of the mechanism of sand to make concrete, building roads, and pavement materials.
The comprehensive utilization of tailings resources at home and abroad can be summarized as follows:
First, the comprehensive recycling of useful components of tailings resources should be done as far as possible. Adopting advanced technology and reasonable crafts to re-beneficiate the tailings to recycle the useful components greatly. Thus the number of tailings will further reduce. Some factories is directing to no tailing.
Second, lings are generally used as underground mining goaf filling that is to say the water and sand filling material or cement filling aggregate. The most ideal thing for tailing is to be the underground mining goaf filling and the filling craft used is full tailing filling process. Now it is still in the experimental stage. In the actual production, the coarse particles of the tailing are used as the underground mining goaf filling. After discharged by the conveyor, the tailing of the ore dressing plant will be feed to the tailing preparing section to be separated to get coarse particles and fine particles. Coarse particles will be sent to underground goaf and fine tailings will be sent to tailing pond for stockpiling.
Third, after processed by sand making machine, the tailing will be used as raw materials of building to make cement, slag silicate brick, tile, aerated concrete, cast stone, refractories, glass, ceramic, concrete aggregate, microcrystalline glass, slag tiles, foam glass and foam materials.
Four, tailing sand is used for building road, coastal farmland and pavement material and anti-ship material.
Five, on the field of tailings, soil reclamation, crop planting and afforestation can be done.
Finally, preserving the tailing in the tailing dam which is specially built is widely adopted in the majority of concentration tailing disposal plant.