Hydraulic transport considerations for high density thickened copper tailings at Southern Peru Copper Corporation

摘要

Many high Andean mines in South America utilise a combination of canals and pipelines to transport tailings and concentrate slurries by gravity. These mining operations are considering implementing thickened or paste tailings technology as a means to reduce water consumption as resources are scarce. As the solids concentration increases many of the tailings exhibit non-Newtonian properties that significantly affect the transport capacity of the canals and pipelines. The paper presents a summary of the hydraulic transport analyses completed on the influence of rheology and slurry solids concentration for the proposed thickened tailings disposal system for Southern Peru Copper Corporation. The general implications of increasing solids concentration of high capacity canal and pipeline systems are discussed.