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Mining Industry Wastewater Treatment and Metals Recovery

As mining sites continue to expand into remote locations, developers are faced with the challenge of minimizing the impact of large runoff streams and metals-laden wastewater on the local environment. To address these challenges, Ecologix provides a complete range of integrated water and wastewater treatment systems and services.

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Mining industry wastewater treatment system
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Mining industry treatment process

Wastewater from extractive operations, including bauxite, coal, copper, gold, silver, diamonds, iron, precious metals, lead, limestone, magnesite, nickel, phosphate, oil shale, rock salt, tin, uranium, and molybdenum, must be managed to prevent water or soil pollution from acid or alkaline heavy-metal leaching.

Ecologix designs and installs systems for these waste streams. Call 1-678-514-2100 or contact us to discuss your operation.

The plant design shown integrates a 200 GPM incline plate clarifier, chemical mixing tanks, flow equalization, a clearwell tank, and an elevated platform for a sludge dewatering filter press. The system removes solids and metals from groundwater upstream of deionization.

Metal treatment process overview

  1. Adjust wastewater pH so metals form insoluble precipitates.
  2. Introduce a coagulant in a mixing tank to bring metal particles together into larger flocs.
  3. Add polymer flocculant to bind particles into larger clumps for collection in sedimentation tanks.
  4. Filter water exiting sedimentation to capture particles that did not settle; filters may use sand or activated carbon.
  5. Backwash filtration systems to prevent clogging and return the backwash water to the first-stage mixing tanks.
  6. Dewater sludge from sedimentation and return recovered water to the initial mixing tank for processing.
Process flow diagram for metals removal from mining operations