Abstract

The mining industry generates thousands of tons of waste every day. Some types of waste pose environmental risks, while others can be considered important sources of valuable materials. Nowadays, the re-processing of mine tailings starts to be seen as an increasingly more critical operation because of the need to shift from the current linear economy model to the circular one. However, full-scale mine tailings processing is still in the early stages. One of the important factors that could contribute to its spreading would be developing a simple method of preliminary assessment of the profitability of mine tailings processing. Therefore, the aim of this study is to propose a method that could be used to estimate the cost of mine tailings processing for the recovery of valuable elements. The proposed approach deploys dimensional analysis, as well as sensitivity analysis. In order to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method, data from 48 Chilean mining operations were analyzed. Since copper is the element whose concentration in Chilean mine tailings is the highest, and vanadium is the main critical raw material that can be obtained from the same source, both were selected to be recovered. The results show that a plant that processes mine tailings to recover vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) via hydrometallurgical processes would incur a processing cost of 6,218 US$/t of V2O5. On the other hand, a processing cost for a plant engaged in copper recovery would be 2,953 US$/t of Cu. This represents a reduction by 40.87% and 44.20%, respectively, compared to the operating costs of similar mining operations. In addition, the sensitivity analysis determined that the unit price of electricity and electricity consumption are the two variables having the highest impact on the total processing cost. The obtained results are valid for Chilean mines, however, the proposed approach could be widely used to estimate mine tailing processing cost for the recovery of other elements in other countries.