Current situation and prospects for the clean utilization of gold tailings

1. Introduction. Gold mines are an important component of metal mineral resources and play an important role in the development of the aerospace, electronic communication, medical medicine, precision instruments, jewelry, financial investment, and many other fields (Qi et al., 2021).Currently, gold is derived primarily from mines of …

A systematic review of sustainable gold extraction from …

In addition to extraction, the application of these reagents in the gold processing, pre-treatment and gold purification stages is explored. The main objective here is to discuss how the gold extraction process can be more sustainable, with a view to developing more greener leaching reagents. Previous article in issue; Next article in …

Recent practices in mine tailings' recycling and reuse

For example, mine tailings production in Chile is 1.6 million tons per day and it is estimated that 17.7 million tons of mine tailings are being generated from South African gold mines [2], [3]. Mining activities in China affect 33,000 hectares of land, 13% of which is due to tailings dams.

Gold tailings reclamation in South Africa

GOLD TAILINGS RECLAMATION IN SOUTH AFRICA l by JJP van Wyk2 Abstract. This paper deals with the history of ... surf ace as sand dumps prior to 1921, and since then as slimes deposits. The combined area already exceeded 80 ... Leaching equipment is erected. This consists of a number of 20 mm polythene water pipes, 100 m long, erected …

Current situation and prospects for the clean utilization of …

This paper describes the mineralogical properties of gold tailings, including chemical composition, phase composition, particle size distribution, and microstructure; …

(PDF) An underexploited invisible gold resource in the …

The tailings dumps originating from gold mining in South Africa's Witwatersrand still contain notable gold endowments. Most tailings reprocessing operations target a native gold fraction using ...

Joburg's old gold mine dumps must be mined

With the gold price as high as it is, the gold in Johannesburg's old mine dumps should be recovered and the valuable land beneath those dumps freed up for redevelopment. The know-how of turning ...

Ecologies of Gold: Mining Landscapes of Johannesburg

Tailings from old mine dumps are excavated and hydrated on site to form slurry, which is then pumped to centralized gold processing plants. Unlike deep shaft mining operations, the hydration process requires only a few skilled …

Gold Recovery from Tailings Achieved in the Most …

The Tritank is used for recovering gold from ores that cannot be readily treated using gravity or other physical processes. Examples include finely disseminated ores and previously treated …

Mine tailings: reprocess, recover & recycle

Yes, that number would need to be offset against the capital cost of new equipment if required, higher processing costs etc. but, given that average ore grades are declining and operating costs are rising, there are now some cases where the reprocessing of tailings works out cheaper than processing material.

The impacts and conflicts associated with defunct gold tailings …

e large volumes of waste generated during gold bene ciation are a major pollution concern in South Africa. To remove these potential pollution risks in perpetuity, nonconventional approaches to mine waste management are required which avoid land disposal of "unwanted" material. is paper explores the opportunities, drivers and barriers for the re …

REPROCESSING AND TAILINGS REDUCTION

tailings storage facility and, therefore, the owner may decide to close it or put it into a non-active state," he said. One company looking to address the. availability and cost of specialised technology for . reprocessing tailings and other 'waste' is CDE. An industry-leading manufacturer of wet. processing equipment for materials ...

Converting Tailings Dumps into Mineral Resources …

Venmyn Deloitte uses Datamine Studio RM software to create a 3D block model of tailings dumps based on the DTM supplied by surveyors as well as a drillhole database containing collar, density and …

UNECE Safety Guidelines and Good Practices for Tailings …

Ensuring the safety of tailing dumps 1. The operators have the primary responsibility for ensuring the safety of the tailing dumps. 2. An individualized or site-by-site approach should be applied to the planning, construction, operation and closure of tailings facilities. 3. All work related to tailing dumps should be carried out only by

Tailings.info What Are Tailings?

The engineering characteristics of tailings are in most instances influenced by the degree of thickening and the method of deposition. It is therefore essential that while investigating the properties of tailings that the physical characteristics and material parameters (e.g. beach slope angles, particle size segregation, water recovery) that can occur as a result …

Feasibility of tailings retreatment to unlock value and …

The reprocessing of tailings resources to extract gold on an industrial scale has become common practice. While these projects are common in the Witwatersrand basin, similar …

Tailings potential: recovering metals from mine waste streams

Experts believe mine tailings could provide a new source of metals and minerals critical to the energy transition, while also cleaning up the environment. ... process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our …

Gold Tailings Granulation Heap Leaching Process

Gold Tailings Granulation Heap Leaching Process Conspectus of Mineral Processing Heap leaching is a common technical process with high efficiency and low consumption. ... short construction period and simple operation by adopting the above technical process. It can produce gold bullion in one work flow and the metal recovery rate is about 65% ...

Witwatersrand tailings dump sulphide minerals found to …

Steve Chingwaru, a PhD-student in geometallurgy at Stellenbosch University's (SU) Department of Earth Sciences, has shown that there is still a significant fraction of "invisible" gold, inaccessible to traditional recovery methods, hosted in sulphide minerals in mine tailings dumps in the Witwatersrand region. The mining of the …

Tailings.info Hydraulic Mining of Tailings

From the 60 million tonnes of tailings mined 695,000 ounces of gold was recovered by Carbon-in-Circuit (CIC) and Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) leach and absorption circuits (Kaltails 1998; Normandy 1998). Of the 333 hectares of land that was hydraulically mined, 262 hectares will be used for waste rock storage from the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold …

Take two: why mine tailings are worth another look

The facility now reprocesses gold tailings from the Golden Sunlight mills. The focus is on removing and concentrating sulphur (iron pyrite) to be sold to, and used …

A plan to extract gold from mining waste splits a Colorado …

The company's process doesn't get rid of the mine waste. For every ton of ore milled, a ton of waste would remain – minus a few ounces of gold. At 400 tons a …

How to generate value from tailings with reprocessing to be …

With advent of novel technologies, mining companies are now figuring out ways to extract valuable metals from tailings. In gold, copper sulfide and iron ore tailings, the potential of extracting minerals is an opportunity. Reprocessing tailings to collect the valuable minerals can be a cost-effective approach compared to processing material.

CHAPTER VIII CLOSURE AND RECLAMATION

• Potentially mobile materials (soft tailings, liquefiable tailings, or water) stored behind dams may pose elevated risks of sudden catastrophic dam failures and outflows that threaten lives, the environment, and property downstream. • Soft tailings are difficult to drive equipment on, expensive to stabilise, cap, and reclaim, and may

What are Tailings

Paste tailings including underground backfill; and; Filtered tailings. Each of these tailings impoundments utilizes a dam and engineered containment to minimize seepage of solutions into the environment. Generally, a pump system is used to collect any errant seepage and return it to the process or impoundment. Conventional Tailings Facility

Geometallurgist's PhD at age 26 could see mine tailings yield gold …

Uncovering a hidden gold mine. Historical mine waste from the Witwatersrand called tailings contains more than 6 billion tons of material with significant gold content, Chingwaru explained. The research for his master's degree, which was upgraded to a PhD along the way, aimed to calculate and characterise these gold reserves.

Tailings, waste and mine closure | Gold Fields Report Suite …

The centre-line method is a combination of the upstream and downstream designs. When raised, material is placed on both the tailings and the existing embankment so the embankment crest is raised vertically. In-pit tailings disposal makes use of worked out open pits. Backfilled tailings are stored underground in previously worked out voids.

An underexploited invisible gold resource in the Archean …

Most tailings reprocessing operations target a native gold fraction using re-milling and carbon-in-leach extraction; however, up to 50–70% of the remaining gold is …

(PDF) Evaluation of pre-treatment methods for gold …

Direct cyanidation of tailings material as-received (P 80 -53 μm) and after ultrafine grinding (P 80 -16 μm) Figure 7-Gold recovery by cyanidation of NaOH pre-leached residues

Process effluents and mine tailings: sources, effects and management

Increasing population levels, growing economies, rapid urbanization and changes in consumption patterns have increased the demand for raw materials such as base and precious metals, leading to growing concerns regarding their availability and the global efficiency of the mine supply chain. Mine tailings, consisting of process effluents …