Rheological Properties of Tailings Materials

International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
http://www.ijert.org
IJERTV11IS070061
(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.)
Published by :
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Vol. 11 Issue 07, July-2022
81

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Figure 3 depicts the differences amongst slurry, paste, and 
filter cake. The concentrations (weight) and strength (i.e., 
actual rheological yield stress) are displayed below. For 
filler product, paste effluent might have yield stress 
variations ranging from 10-1000 Pa. The alumina production 
is subjected to a yield stress of 40 Pa. Because yield stress 
distribution curves can vary greatly even within the similar 
industry, it is concluded that concentration is not a distinct 
parameter, but yield stress is. 
Figure 3: Strength vs concentration curve for slurry (Boger 
2013) 

For similar yield stress of 20 Pa, the concentration is found 

to change from roughly 36 per cent weight. to 53 per cent 
weight. Figure 4. Figure 5 displays yield stress as the factor 
of concentration for eleven distinct minerals. This variance 
happens within the similar industry and it differs widely 
from one industry to the other industry. The concentration 
ranges from roughly 0.24 (mass fraction) for coal mine 
tailings to almost 0.68 for copper tailings to 0.8 for mine 
slope fill material at a yield stress of 200 Pa. Therefore, for 
same yield stress different tailing have different 
concentration. 
Figure 4: yield stress vs concentration for red mud for different alumina 
samples. (Boger 2013 
Figure 5: shear yield stress vs solid mass fraction for different minerals. 
(Boger 2013) 
Mineral Tailings Rheology 
The study conducted (Wang et. al) considered samples of 
gold, copper and iron tailings. Tailings are classified as tail 
silty soil, tail finer sand and tail silty sand as per the 
standards of particle size distribution. The influence of type 
of ore, size of particle, plasma concentration and rate of 
shear on rheological properties is studied.
Type of ore
It can be seen in fig 6 that as the time increasing viscosity 
decreases rapidly to a certain limit and then becomes 
constant. The reason is as the rotor started plasma was at rest 
thus there is some initial viscosity. In fig 7 it can be shown 
that yield stress increases up to certain limit and then 
becomes constant. It has initial value almost zero because as 
rotor started tailing also rotated with it. It was seen that iron 
ore has maximum impact and copper ore minimum because 
of difference in internal composition.
Figure 6: viscosity vs time Wang et.al