Mintek's Refloat Tailings Retreatement Process
Photo by: Duane Daws
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – State-owned research organisation Mintek on Wednesday demonstrated its Reflaut tailings treatment process at gold miner Gold Fields’ South Deep mine, in Johannesburg.
Reflaut, which stands for Retreatment Flowsheet for Au and Uranium Tailings, has been used at South Deep since November and removes gold, as well as harmful sulphites and radioactive uranium from tailings, significantly reducing the mineral content responsible for generating acid mine drainage.
Mintek Minerals Processing division head of flotation Kevin Pillay told Mining Weekly Online that tailings are processed through a flotation circuit, which generates liquid comprised of uranium and sulphites, as well as gold solids.
The resulting tailings have a sulphite content of less than 0.3% and less than 40 parts per million of uranium, which Pillay noted is the generally accepted safety standard in the mining industry.
The demonstration plant has a tailings retreatment capacity of about 200 kg/h. About 2 g of concentrate is produced for every ton of tailings retreated at South Deep.