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Water Recycling and Seasonal Water Quality Effects in Mineral Processing

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Proceedings of the 61st Conference of Metallurgists, COM 2022 (COM 2022)

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Abstract.

Water management is a crucial aspect of sustainability in the mining industry. Increased awareness of the lack of freshwater resources pushes mining companies to use water from alternate sources and increase the proportion of recycled process water. Global trends such as decreasing ore grade, climate change, water scarcity, and stricter environmental regulations have led to the recirculation of greater quantities of water in mineral processing plants. As a result, the ionic strength of process water increases. Detrimental or beneficial effects to mineral flotation depend on the sensitivity of ores in the process. Seasonal variations in temperature, ionic strength, and microbiological activity can contribute to a decrease in metallurgical performance in concentrators during certain months of operation. The seasonal performance of the Kidd Creek concentrator located in Timmins, Ontario is investigated in some detail. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of water chemistry and seasonal variation effects on flotation. The review will serve as fundamental background knowledge for future research focused on the effects of water quality variation on a complex Cu-Zn sulphide ore.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Lucie Morin, André Demers, Meghan De Souza, Samir Samhat, and Maziar Sauber for the valuable support to this project. The Kidd Operations management is also thanked for their in-kind support and sharing of plant data used in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CanmetMINING, National Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Patrick W. Rankin & Antonio Di Feo

  2. The Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Patrick W. Rankin & Sadan Kelebek

  3. Kidd Operations, Glencore Canada Corporation, Timmins, ON, Canada

    Jennifer R. Taylor

Authors
  1. Patrick W. Rankin
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  2. Sadan Kelebek
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  4. Jennifer R. Taylor
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Correspondence to Patrick W. Rankin .

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    Rankin, P.W., Kelebek, S., Di Feo, A., Taylor, J.R. (2023). Water Recycling and Seasonal Water Quality Effects in Mineral Processing. In: Proceedings of the 61st Conference of Metallurgists, COM 2022. COM 2022. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17425-4_106

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