The organization of intrafactory water circulation at mining and processing enterprises, when production wastes and discharges are not sent to an external tailings dump, is an urgent environmental and economic task. Returning even a part of water into the technological process after preliminary treatment will significantly reduce the volume of polluted water discharged into tailings, which will reduce energy costs for waste transportation and the negative environmental impact. One of the wastes sent to the tailings during the ore dressing wastes from the Kovdor deposit to the tailings dump is the discharge of thickeners for the preparation of apatite flotation feed. In order to choose the effective discharge cleaning regime, the authors have evaluated the action of polyacrylamide flocculants. It has been discovered that the apatite and calcite particles interact more effectively with the anionic flocculant. This fact determines its advantage for the treatment of suspended particles. The influence of the residual concentration of a flocculant on the apatite flotation, where a part of the returned treated water goes, has been assessed. Compared to flotation with recycled water, there is a decrease of P2O5 extraction into apatite concentrate of equal quality. In order to obtain the required enrichment indicators on the treated water, it is necessary to adjust the collector (tall oil fatty acids) and depressor (liquid glass) costs.
In the bases of multilevel dumps three complexes of rocks characterized by different physical and mechanical properties are clearly distinguished.The first complex is represented by modern soils of floodplain terraces of river valleys and gullies. Its thickness is 0.5-15 m. The soils of this complex are fully water-saturated, highly compressible and have extremely low shear resistance. They form weakening zones in the bases of dumps, where creep phenomena and extrusion landslides develop. The soils of this complex require special engineering measures aimed at drainage and strengthening. ...
Dumping at KMA quarries is characterized by wide development of design and construction of high multilevel dumps of large capacity; application of powerful high-performance machinery of cyclic and continuous action; formation of dumps from various, in many cases weak overburden rocks on weak bases. To determine the optimal parameters of dumps under the conditions of stability requires the solution of not only static, but also dynamic and kinematic problems. ...
