Tailings, copper

Copper concentrates Copper tailings Lead concentrates Zinc concentrates Nickel ... 

Elevated copper and zinc concentrations in soil adversely affect microbial biomass, activity, and composition of microbial communities in soil adjacent to copper smelters and copper-tailings dumps. 3,4 Nitrogen fixation was adversely impacted when heavy metal-contaminated sewage sludge was added to soils. 5 ... 

De la Iglesia R, Castro D, Ginocchio R, et al. Factors influencing the composition of bacterial communities found at abandoned copper-tailing dumps. Appl Microbiol 2006 100(3) 537-44. 

Pilot-plant studies confirm the feasibility of recovering uranium from the sulfuric acid solutions used to extract copper from tailing piles in the Western United States. One plant producing around 250 MT/year went into operation at Twin Buttes, Nevada, in 1975. It is estimated that total U.S. production from copper tailings might reach 800 MT/year. 

Bold B, Fondbote L. (2001). Element cycling and secondary mineralogy in porphyry copper tailings as a function of climate, primary mineralogy, and mineral processing. Journal of Geochemical Exploration 77 3-55. 

Mill tailings - Some ores, such as iron ore, are found in relatively high % and are fairly easy to separate. Therefore, the resultant tailings are coarser than those from other ores, such as copper, which is found in very low %, and requires very fine grinding for separation. Hence, copper tailings are usually quite fine-grained... 

Cyanide spills in general were tracked using data from National Analysis of Trends in Emergencies Systems (NATES) for 1974 to 1995 (Environment Canada, 2000). This is shown in Eig. 39.3 and includes spills of cyanide leachates, sodium cyanide, cyanide not otherwise specified (nos), and cyanide/copper tailings. As can be seen in Fig. 39.4, cyanide nos is the largest of the spills and may contain any cations with cyanide or the cyanide ion itself. 

CYANIDE LEACHATE g CYANIDE NOS I CYANIDE/COPPER TAILINGS SODIUM CYANIDE... 

Cia Minera Disputada de Las Condes, Chile Wirth 3 pumps 115 mYhr (510 gpm), 2.5 MPa (360 psi) copper tailings... 

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