List of Articles Sangan Iron Ore Complex

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  1 - Assessment of the Acid Mine Drainage Potential of Processing Plant Tailings at the Sangan Iron Ore Complex
  Ali Behnamfrad Esmail Khaphaje Rasool Alaei
  10.22034/jest.2018.18007.2685
  Background and Objective: Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the most significant environmental pollution problem associated with the mining activities. AMD is caused by the oxidation of sulfide minerals in the mine tailings that occurs when these materials are exposed to atmo More

  Background and Objective: Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the most significant environmental pollution problem associated with the mining activities. AMD is caused by the oxidation of sulfide minerals in the mine tailings that occurs when these materials are exposed to atmospheric oxygen and water. Sangan processing plant annually produces 2.6 million tons of concentrate with iron content more than 66%. During this beneficiation approximately 1.3 Mt/a of tailing material containing 4% sulfur is produced and discarded to the tailings dam. The presence of sulfide minerals associated with water and oxygen in the tailing dam can generates AMD. The aim of this research is to evaluate the acid generation potential of the tailing material.   Method: In order to predict the acid generation potential of the tailing material, samples were taken from the final tailing (i.e., the mixture of various tailing streams of the plant) and also separately from various tailing streams of the plant. Afterwards, the acid generation potential of the samples was determined by modified acid base accounting static tests. Results: The results indicated that the ratio of neutralization potential to acid potential for the final tailing is 2.04. Conclusion: This research showed that the tailing of Sangan iron ore processing plant is in the zone of uncertainty. Hence, additional kinetic testing must be performed for obtaining certainty about acid generation potential. Manuscript profile