Improvement of water segregation in backfilling

Mineral mining and processing plants use substantial volumes of pure water for economic and process needs. A general practice in reduction of water consumption at mines is the transition from the once-through water supply to the closed-loop water reuse. It is possible to reduce materially the industrial effluent runoff in this case. At the present time, mines show an increasing trend in water consumption because of hydraulic stowing and cemented paste backfilling. In view of an explicit contradiction in water content standards, it is efficient to use partly recycling water in backfilling. This article describes performance of a new-design mobile plant intended for preparation of cemented paste backfill with its simultaneous dewatering, surplus water export and transportation of thickened pulp to a mined-out void using a positive displacement pulp. Backfill can be fed to mined-out voids via special backfill openings driven from the upper-lying level or in pipes laid in the openings on the current mining level. Evaluation of the equipment performance uses the analysis of patterns of mass fractions and velocities of solid particles, as well as patterns of velocities and velocity vectors of water in certain areas of the water segregator. The capacity of the water segregator depends on its dimensions, and on the velocities of slurry feed and export, which, in its turn, affects the output slurry concentration. The water segregator capacity was estimated at the varied parameters of the input slurry. The mode of operation was optimized by the criterion of the output slurry concentration. The integrated analysis of the obtained results in Ansys optiSLang allowed estimates of sensitivity of the results to the input factors and provided their weights.

Vasilyeva М. А., Volchikhina А. А., Kuskildin R. B. Improvement of water segregation in backfilling. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2023;(4):125-139. [In Russ]. DOI: 10. 25018/0236_1493_2023_4_0_125.

М.А. Vasilyeva¹, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Assistant Professor, e-mail: saturn.sun@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2594-74810,
А.А. Volchikhina¹, Graduate Student, e-mail: alexandravolchihina@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7142-1935,
R.B. Kuskildin¹, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Assistant Professor, e-mail: kuskildin_rb@pers.spmi.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0487-4413,
¹ Saint-Petersburg Mining University, 199106, Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

А.А. Volchikhina, e-mail: alexandravolchihina@yandex.ru.

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