Technology development for limitation of the contaminant build-up in recycled process water

Mines today are recycling as much water as possible during their operations. However, the quality of the recycled water is not as good as the quality of fresh water and this seems to impact the efficiency of the milling process in the mines, especially the flotation cells. The objective of this project is to look at possibilities for water treatment to avoid the build-up of contaminants in the recycled water used in the mill. The objective of this project was 1) to identify which contaminants affect the mill and 2) to develop technologies to improve the water quality. Unlike usual water treatment, the objective was not to remove all contaminants, but simply to reduce the build-up which will create opportunities for innovative technology designs. Various technologies were tested during this project, such as capacitive deionization.