Electrokinetic remediation of manganese and zinc in copper mine tailings.

The scope of this work is to determine the effect of initial acidity and electric field intensity on the Electrokinetic Remediation of manganese and zinc from mine tailings from a Chilean copper mine. To achieve this objective, experiments were carried out focusing on the effect of the applied electric field (1 and 2 V cm-1), the H2SO4 concentration during pretreatment (1 and 2 mol L-1) and the interaction between these factors in manganese and zinc concentration. From the obtained results, manganese and zinc can be removed from the analyzed tailings, with the maximum net removal 31.88% and 17.95%, respectively. The enhancement of electromigration was proven by an Analysis of Variance with a significance level of 10% for the soluble and total metal concentration in the cathodic zone, where total concentration was increased to 24% and 11% for zinc and manganese, respectively.

Electrical Behavior of Copper Mine Tailings During EKR with Modified Electric Fields.

Electro-kinetic remediation (EKR) with sinusoidal electric field obtained simultaneously with DC/AC voltage reduce the polarization of the EKR with DC voltage. The DC voltage value defines the presence of a periodic polarity reversal of the cell and the electrical charge for electro-kinetic transport. In this case, the AC frequency favors the breaking of polarization conditions resulting from the EKR with DC voltage. However, with high frequencies a negative effect occurs where the tailings behave as a filter circuit, discriminating frequencies of an electric signal. The goal of this work is to analyse the electrical behaviour of tailings in EKR experiments. The conditions selected were: DC/AC voltages: 10/15 and 20/25 V (peak values), and AC voltage frequencies 50-2000 Hz. When the AC frequency reaches 2000 Hz, the copper removal tends to zero, indicating that the tailing behaves as a high-pass filter in which the DC voltage was filtered out.

Electrodialytic remediation of copper mine tailings using bipolar electrodes.

In this work an electrodialytic remediation (EDR) cell for copper mine tailings with bipolar stainless steel plates was analyzed. The bipolar plates were inserted inside the tailings, dividing it into independent electrochemical cells or sections, in order to increase the copper removal efficiency from mine tailings. The bipolar plates design was tested on acidic copper mine tailings with a fixed: applied electric field, liquid content, initial pH, and remediation time. The laboratory results showed that inserting bipolar plates in EDR cells improves the remediation action, even though the applied electric field is reduced by the electrochemical reactions on the plates. Basically three aspects favor the process: reduction of the ionic migration pathways, increase of the electrode surface, and in-situ generation of protons (H(+)) and hydroxyls (OH(-)). Furthermore, the laboratory results with citric acid addition significantly improve the remediation actions, reaching copper removal of up to nine times better, compared to conventional EDR experiments without any plates or citric acid addition.

Electrodialytic remediation of suspended mine tailings.

This work shows the laboratory results of nine electrodialytic remediation experiments on copper mine tailings. A newly designed remediation cell, where the solids were kept in suspension by airflow, was tested. The results show that electric current could remove copper from suspended tailings applying 40 mA during 7 days. The liquid-to-solid ratios used were 3, 6 and 9 mL g(- 1). With addition of sulfuric acid, the process was enhanced because the pH decreased to either 2 or 4, and copper was therefore dissolved. The maximum copper removal was 80% with addition of sulfuric acid in 7-day experiment at 40 mA, with approximately 137.5 g mine tailings on dry basis. The removal for a static (baseline) experiment only amounted 15% when passing approximately the same amount of charge through 130 g of mine tailings. The use of air bubbling to keep the tailings suspended increased the removal efficiency from 1% to 80% compared to experiments with no stirring but with the same operational conditions. This showed the crucial importance of having the solids in suspension and not settled during the remediation.

Electrodialytic remediation of copper mine tailings.

Mining activities in Chile have generated large amounts of solid waste, which have been deposited in mine tailing impoundments. These impoundments cause concern to the communities due to dam failures or natural leaching to groundwater and rivers. This work shows the laboratory results of nine electrodialytic remediation experiments on copper mine tailings. The results show that electric current could remove copper from watery tailing if the potential gradient was higher than 2 V/cm during 21 days. With addition of sulphuric acid, the process was enhanced because the pH decreased to around 4, and the copper by this reason was released in the solution. Furthermore, with acidic tailing the potential gradient was less than 2 V/cm. The maximum copper removal reached in the anode side was 53% with addition of sulphuric acid in 21 days experiment at 20 V using approximately 1.8 kg mine tailing on dry basis. In addition, experiments with acidic tailing show that the copper removal is proportional with time.