Water technologies, on-line sensors, ore sorting and new approaches to the valorization of tailings have been developed and piloted at mine sites in Finland, Portugal and South Africa. These campaigns have demonstrated that new sensors can reliably monitor contaminants of interest and water can be cleaned efficiently and made ‘fit-for-purpose’. Real value has been shown with ore sorting, with rapid adoption in the mining industry expected. Dry tailings have been transformed into a cement like material in a process called geopolymerisation. We have developed a protocol on closed water loops with clear recommendations for all stakeholders, building on the knowledge created during the project.
ITERAMS brings substantial advancements in water management for closing the water cycle in mines. This advancement refers to progress on individual technologies (DAF, ion exchange, filtration, among others) but also in a smart and efficient combinations of the technologies. The different validation mine sites in the project confirmed that there is no “one ITERAMS solution” for closing the water cycle, consisting of a certain pattern of technologies that are interconnected in one approved set, but rather ITERAMS is offering a solution portfolio, which has been tested and validated in small scale. This solution portfolio should be adapted to the specific requirements of a mine site and its operating mode. Sensors are an essential element in a well-managed water circulation system. In ITERAMS, new sensors for measuring ion concentration in water streams have developed, based on Ion-Selective Electrodes (ISE). Conceptually, a water treatment protocol has been developed, to guide interested users towards a promising and effective water treatment design, for a mine site.
Further, ITERAMS achieved a better understanding of conditions that are suitable for creating geopolymers from tailings obtained from ore processing and was able to successfully create these geopolymers and validate
the models and concepts in relevant tests. It was no surprise to see that the initial properties of tailings vary tremendously from mine to mine, and that a “one fits all” approach and recipe for obtaining geopolymers is out of the question.
Not the least, a sustainability assessment for mine sites has been developed and successfully applied, that is at the same time able to capture the various sustainability effects of a mine operation, on-site and to local
communities, as well as through the supply chain and life cycle, for environmental, social, and economic impacts. For validation sites with very different conditions, a complete sustainability model has been created. The approach includes a procedure of how to understand and evaluate a social license (SLO) to operate for a mine site, and aspects affecting this SLO.
With ITERAMS results, it is thus possible to sort the ore, to close the water cycle in a mine site, to produce, depending especially on geological conditions, geopolymers from residues of the treatment of the circulated water, to assess the sustainability of the operations, and to guide and steer the operation of the mine towards sustainability.
