Mining

Process additives to help balance throughput and cleaner effluent. Modern mining operations must balance demands for higher throughput and cleaner effluent.  Efficiently transporting ore as well as minimizing fines in egress water are keys to success in an increasingly regulated market space. POLYOX™ water soluble resins have wide ranging flocculation capability, targeting materials including silica, clays, oxidized coal fines and heavy metals themselves.  The lubricating properties of POLYOX™ slurries help to reduce drag through the transport pipeline, reducing wear and increasing throughput. Additionally, water based dispersions of POLYOX™ can reduce and suppress dust wherever they are used.

In mining processes the ultimate goal is to remove a valuable metal or mineral from an often large amount of gangue. Various processes are being applied and most are highly water-intensive. In order to separate the solids from the water and in order to make the process water re-usable, filtration and flocculation are typically applied during a dewatering process step. Mining processes often generate slurries of very fine particles, which settle very slowly and therefore are thereby difficult to dewater. In arid regions and/or to address environmental concerns related to building large settling ponds, highly efficient flocculants are added to aid the flocculation.

In slurry transportation, the desire is to have a high solid content in the pipelines. This allows for an increased production capacity and to reduces the energy needed to dewater. Additives such as drag reducers can help to meet this industry need. Loading, dumping, and moving over-burden is a major source of dust emissions at coal mines. Therefore, coal mines need to have dust management processes in place.