Mineralogy and Geochemistry of Iron Tailings from Yeshan Iron Deposit, Southwest Jiangsu, China: Implications for Potential Utilization

Gang Yang; Quanmin Xie; Yidi Li; E Ranjith Kumar; Fang Liu; Mei Yang

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c07893

Mineralogy and Geochemistry of Iron Tailings from Yeshan Iron Deposit, Southwest Jiangsu, China: Implications for Potential Utilization

ACS Omega. 2024 Jan 9;9(3):3827-3834. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c07893. eCollection 2024 Jan 23.

Authors

Gang Yang^{1

2}, Quanmin Xie¹, Yidi Li¹, E Ranjith Kumar³, Fang Liu^{4

5}, Mei Yang²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Precision Blasting, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430056, China.
² Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China.
³ Department of Physics, KPR Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore 641407, Tamilnadu, India.
⁴ School of Literature, Law and Economics, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430081, China.
⁵ Wuhan Explosion and Blasting Company Limited, Wuhan 430056, China.

Abstract

In this work, twenty-one core samples of tailings wastes were collected from Yeshan iron tailings pond in Jiangsu Province, China. The mineralogical-chemical properties of Yeshan iron ore tailings (IOTs) were investigated to explore potential utilization. Mineralogical investigations and mineral liberation analysis indicated that the iron tailings have complex texture and incomplete mineral liberation, suggesting further grinding can improve higher recovery. Yeshan IOTs accumulated much higher MgO originating from dolomite, therefore, it could be infeasible to utilize a large quantity of Yeshan IOTs as alternative raw meals for cement clinker or replace aggregates in concrete. 2D vertical distribution profiles created with the ordinary kriging method presented heterogeneous distributions of major elements, and the variation trends were inconsistent. The results obtained in this work provide insight for exploiting and reducing Yeshan IOTs.