Tungsten Tailings

Tungsten tailings are tungsten ores in fine tailings after grinding, it is a solid waste. Tungsten tailings grade is generally low, 0.1% to 0.7%, resulting in a large number of tailings during the beneficiation process, accounting for more than 90% of the ore. 

Most of the tungsten tailings used for backfilling into the mine or storage of open space, not only occupied the land but also pollute the environment which is harmful to human health, so tungsten tailings comprehensive recycling has attracted attention.

Tungsten tailings depending on the composition, the current one is re-treatment are black tungsten tailings, the main purpose can be divided into two categories: the recovery of valuable metal minerals or non-metallic mineral or used in the manufacture of cement industry and glass-ceramic.

Normal tungsten deposits are often associated with many useful metals such as tin, molybdenum, bismuth, copper, lead, zinc, antimony, beryllium, cobalt, gold and silver. Tungsten tailings in the comprehensive recycling method through the use of electromagnetism magnetic separation of useful metal, the current recovery of valuable metals mainly include tungsten, molybdenum and bismuth. In addition, tungsten tailings can also recover non-metallic minerals such as fluorite and garnet, are the rare materials in chemical and construction industry.

Tungsten tailings are mainly composed of silicon and aluminum oxides and contain calcium, which is similar to traditional building materials. Tungsten tailings are used as one of the raw materials for the production of cement clinker, which can improve the yield and quality of cement clinker and lower cost, also reduce the cement kiln fluoride sulfur pollution. Use tungsten tailings as the main raw material, the using amount is 55% to 75%, without adding nucleating agent, use casting molding method to prepare tungsten glass-ceramic, the main crystal phase is β-wollastonite, the nuclear crystallization mechanism belongs to the surface nucleation crystallization, the process is simple, the cost is cheap.

At present, the reserves of tungsten resources in China are declining year by year. The grade of ore is getting lower and lower, and tungsten tailings resources are recovered from valuable metal and nonmetallic ore, which can effectively improve resource utilization rate. The overall utilization of tungsten tailings is conducive to advancing the construction of tailings-free mines, which not only improves the added value of tungsten mineral resources, but also improves the mine environment, which is the future development direction of tungsten tailings comprehensive utilization.

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