Treatment process of tailings pond water

[CTXG]

Hi all,

This is a very generic question.

What are the treatment processes for a tailings pond water to achieve the target effluent quality. What are the considerations? What is the typical process train? Does it include RO? What is the typical recovery and flux of RO, if it does?

Sorry have never done tailings pond water treatment before.

Thank you in advance

 

[LittleInch]

Might be a lot better in the civil engineers water treatment forum.

"Tailings" though is rather vague - needs some idea of what is in it, quantity & type of material etc

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[bimr]

RO will probably not be feasible since there is a reject waste stream from the RO that must be disposed of. The reject waste stream will be approximately 20% of the incoming flow to the RO. The disposal method for the reject waste stream is thermal evaporation to dry salts which will be expensive.

As a minimum, you will need some time of clarification process for a tailings pond.

The extent of the treatment scheme will depend on the water analysis (which you have not provided) and the discharge water requirements (which is also not provided) and the wastewater flow.