Oxidación de jales ricos en pirita en un reactor a escala de banco

The mining industry is a relevant economical activity in Mexico. However, it is also one of the industries that generate more wastes. Tailings (jales in Spanish from the aztec term xalli, fine sands) figure among them. Mexican standards define tailings as solid wastes generated in the primary operations of separation and concentration of minerals and tailings pond or dam, the deposits where they are disposed of, as engineering constructions for the storage and final disposal of the tailings, which are built and operated simultaneously. In the present study, essays to simulate the filling of a tailings pond or dam were performed. The follow up parameters used where taken from a previous study in which it was found that long periods of drought followed by strong precipitations, favor the oxidation of the pyrite in the tailings. The objective of the present research was to determine the effect of these conditions in the leachates characteristics that could be generated. During the tests, the maximum allowed limits for metals stated in Mexican standards where not exceeded and the values of pH and iron concentration were similar to the data analyzed from the tailings pond water samples and the humidity cell tests.