Investigation of chemical suppressants for inactivation of sulfide ores

Abstract

In order to investigate the effective control method of spontaneous combustion in the mining of sulfide ore deposits. This paper presents the testing results of several selected chemicals (water glass, calcium chloride, calcium oxide, magnesium oxide and their composites) as oxidation suppressants for sulfide ores. A weight increment scaling method was used to measure suppressant performance, and this method proved to be accurate, simple and convenient. Based on a large number of expeiments, the test results show that four types of chemical mixtures demonstrate a good performance in reducing the oxidation rate of seven active sulfide ore samples by up to 27% to 100% during an initial 76 d period. The mixtures of water glass mixed with calcium chloride and magnesium oxide mixed with calcium chloride can also act as fire suppressants when used with fire sprinkling systems.

Keywords

sulfide ores / oxidation / chemical suppressants

References

[1] FarnsworhD J M, et al.. Sulfide fires — the “hot muck” problem (at the Sullivian Mine)[J]. CIM Bull, 1997, 70(782): 65-98

[2] LodhaT R, et al.. Storage problems of Amjhore pyrites[J]. Fertilizer Technology, 1983, 20(1): 76-77

[3] RosenblumF, SpiraP. Evaluation of hazard from self-heating of sulfide rock [J]. CIM Bull, 1995, 88(989): 44-49

[4] Rosenblum F, Spira P. Self-heating of sulfides [C]. In: Proceedings of the 13th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mineral Processors. Ottawa, 1981. 34–51.

[5] Ninteman D J. Spontaneous oxidation and combustion of sulfide ores in underground mines [J]. Information Circular, 1978, (8775): 1–40.

[6] WuC, MengT RTheory and technology for the spontaneous combustion control of sulfide ores in mines (in Chinese) [M], 1995, Beijing, Metallurgical Industry Press

[7] MENG T R, WU C. Study of mine spontaneous combustion of sulfide ores[C]. In: Ragula Bhaskar ed. Proceedings of the 6th US Mine Ventilation Symposium. SME, 1993. 203–207.

[8] Pahlman J E, Reimers G W. Thermal gravimetric analysis of pyrite oxidation at low temperature [J]. Report of Investigations, 1986, (9059):1–15.

[9] WuC, MengT R. Experimental investigation of the chemical thermodynamic behavior of sulfide ores during spontaneous combustion [J]. West-China Exploration Engineering (English edition), 1995, 7(5): 57-65

[10] William H. Spontaneous combustion fire detection for metal mines. Information Circular[J], 1987, (9144): 1–25.

[11] WuC, et al.. In-situ measurement of fire initiation in sulfide ore dumps [J]. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China (English edition), 1997, 7(1): 33-37

[12] WuC. Fault tree analysis of spontaneous combustion of sulfide ores and its risk assessment [J]. Journal of Central South University of Technology (English edition), 1995, 2(2): 77-80