finely distributed particles of pyrite in the tailing dams are a potential danger for the environment.
are there any practices to prevent or control the oxidation of fine pyrites in mining activities?
Ali Behrad Vakylabad Usually not - in the presence of oxygen and moisture the oxidation of iron pyrites is as certain as night follows day...
Thanks, dear Alan F Rawle . I agree exactly from this point of view that pyrite is widely dispersed in mining environments and is constantly reacting with the surrounding media. In particular, microorganisms are always activated rapidly in mining and mineral environments. However, there are still hopes. This process can be similar to fire extinguishing in the sense that we stop the fire by blocking and limiting one of the components of the fire. Here we also know that pyrite oxidation has three main components (in general): air, water moisture, and pyrite itself. So maybe with, for example, separating and reducing pyrite or limiting air through the coating, we can think about reducing pyrite oxidation somewhat.
Ali Behrad Vakylabad
One would need to convert the sulfide to something else with addition of chemicals e.g. phosphate. Iron sulfate is water soluble of course and easily washed away.
Dear Alan F Rawle , Interesting idea. could you please kindly have any suggestions or references about the phosphate-based chemical agents with which the iron sulfide pyrite can be easily converted into a water-soluble phase? thanks
Alan F Rawle It has been reported that phosphate usually causes partly stabilization and inactivation of the pyrite under relatively costly operating conditions. (Thanks for your keywords)
Ref: Control of pyrite oxidation by phosphate coating - ScienceDirect
Vadim S. Gorshkov
Thank you very much. That's a very interesting point. Let me add a few more points. In a mine, we have several types of tailings. In terms of the important sulfide tailings, we have mine tailings and concentration or mineral processing tailings. The first, the coarse rocks in the dump and the latter a very fine-grinded ore in the tailings dam. The first one has a lot of volume or tonnage. The second characteristic is the very fine-grained and high concentration of sulfide.
dear Alan F Rawle so thanks for kindly sharing the arts. so useful.
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