Consideration of Seafloor Ore Separation by Slurry Flushing for Seafloor Massive Sulfide Mining

摘要

Seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) which contain Au, Ag, Cu, Zn, and Pbrnhave been interested in as a target of commercial mining these 15 years.rnJapan has large potential of SMS and a national R&D project for thernmining has been active these 5 years. However, the economy of SMSrnmining is very bad, because the waste tailing disposal cost is veryrnexpensive in Japan. A slurry flushing method is experimentallyrnexamined in this study for the improvement of the economy. During thernflushing, because of density difference between the metal-rich ore andrnthe waste rock, a kind of gravity separation is possible. The resultsrnsuggest a possibility of the actual application.