Study of Alternative Technologies for Residue Disposal (Red Mud)

Abstract

Environmental agencies are becoming increasingly stringent and restrictive in release areas for disposal of industrial residues and mining tailings. Because of this, studies are being conducted to enable the maximum use of areas already licensed and impacted with residue disposal. The alternatives considered are aimed at disposal of a greater volume of residue in a smaller area, increasing the lifetime of existing disposal systems. This paper presents a comparative study of residue disposal alternatives in a dam operated by the conventional method (residue in pulp). The alternatives studied use filtering the residue to reduce the amount of water in that for final disposal. Lifetime comparisons were made between the use of conventional method, dry stacking and dry disposal, in addition to tests for characterization of the dry residue to disposal.