T2CM’s purpose is to remodel all tailings produced at a given operation into usable elements for buildings by using an strategy that merges cleansing/extractive processes to get better Cu/Mo and sulfuric acid with conversion/recycling processes.
In addition to limiting the buildup of tailings within the setting, the method drastically cuts the virtually one tonne of CO2 that’s launched into the ambiance per tonne of cement produced below typical mechanisms.
The brand new method entails transporting recent tailings to a close to or on-site remedy facility, advantageous grinding and particle measurement classification of the tailings for floor activation and early sand and pozzolanic materials manufacturing, in addition to rougher sulphide flotation to acquire a desulphurized materials and a sulphur polymetallic focus.
The sulphur-enriched materials is then separated into copper sulphide and pyrite fraction by flotation, and the pyrite-enriched focus goes to a roasting step for sulphur elimination and H2SO4 manufacturing. Lastly, the iron oxide desulphurized materials is used to develop building supplies.
Such tailings-based building supplies are then additional transformed into non-treated supplies, which can be utilized as fillers; geopolymeric aggregations of non-treated supplies; geopolymeric aggregations of handled supplies for high-performance supplies; tailings-based cementitious supplies, and bio-cemented supplies.
The tailings used to check the method had been retrieved from eight websites positioned close to the cities of Copiapó, Salamanca y Til Til.
When it got here to the manufacturing of cementitious supplies, grinding time and temperature had been optimized in order that it was potential to acquire stable residues whose microstructure and measurement allowed for the substitute of 40% of cement for tailings.
Based on mission lead Mauricio López, the usage of tailings to provide cement isn’t a brand new concept. Nevertheless, earlier proponents used untreated tailings and had been capable of exchange solely 15% of the cement in building supplies.