Per: ana fernanda de carvalho araújo (vale s.a), Ernandes Sávio (Vale S.A), Kaike Silva Albuquerque (Vale S.A), Nilton Caixeta Guimarães (Vale S.A), Tiago Leite (Vale S.A)
Abstract:
Decomposed mafic and chemical canga, referred to as clay waste, are friable lithologies that contain clay minerals, making it difficult to handle these ores due to their low flowability. This challenge has been observed at the Serra Sul mine, where the clay waste can reach up to 20% moisture, impacting the stability and leverage of the site's production indicators. Reductions in mass flow and operational stoppages due to obstructions in chutes, hoppers, grizzlies, and crushers, as well as avalanche risks, are some key points of concern for the flow of this waste. Bench-scale and industrial-scale tests have shown that the use of Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP), with dosages ranging from 300g/t to 500g/t, leads to significant improvements in operational performance, reducing operational stoppages and increasing the hourly throughput of the circuit by up to 50%.