Purification of mine water of a non-ferrous metal mine in a pilot plant

Summary

The results of pilot studies of liming, coagulation, sorption and ion exchange are presented to determine the efficiency of removing contaminants from the mine water of a non-ferrous metal mine to meet the MPC values for fishery reservoirs. Mine water is polluted with suspended substances, ions of copper, manganese, iron, zinc and nickel, petroleum products and nitrates, as well as with a small amount of feces. The pilot plant provides for two stage treatment: first, chemical-free sedimentation, addition of chlorine, lime, coagulant and flocculant, and clarification in a vertical settling tank-clarifier with polymer «brushes» in the top media. At the second stage, primary water is filtrated through parallelly installed a sodium cation exchanger filter and a sorption filter. The plant capacity was 1 m3/h. Studies were carried out on water purification in different seasons of the year with significant fluctuations in the quality indicators. It was established that the proposed process flow scheme provided for removing the main pollutants to meet the requirements for the effluent discharge into a fishery reservoir.

Key words

suspended substances , coagulation , sorption , ion exchange , liming , purification of mine water , copper and manganese ions