Deep Cone Thickener: An Approach to Reducing Water Consumption and Environmental Complications in the Production Process: A Case Study of Songun Copper Complex, North Western Iran

Songun copper processing plant’s feed is 61% grade porphyry which changes to 30% grade copper concentrate after flotation. 2100 m3/h water is required for concentrating process in this plant. During the concentrating process, 1204 m3/h tailing with a solidity of 50% are produced and transferred to the tailing dam. The high volume of the waste water, which contains chemical additives and discharges to the environment, may lead to numerous environmental issues. In this study, through the investigating the factors which affect deposition, the optimum deposition conditions of the tailing slurry was determined using Taguchi experiment design method. Then, by designing and making a pilot scale deep cone thickener along with applying the optimum deposition conditions in continuous feeding, an underflow with a solidity of 61% was gained. Thus, the average percentage of Songun coppers’ tailing thickener underflow solidity is 48% which will be improved by the proposed method that leads to 170 m3/h increase in the amount of reclaimed water from tail thickener and also a decrease in raw water and chemical drugs consumption in the concentrating process and thus, a reduce in the number of environmental impacts of effluents discharging to the dam.