Jianhua (Jason) Du (PhD Student)
University of South Australia

Project Title
Development of high power ultrasonics for improved settling and dewatering of clay wastes

Biography
• 1999-2003 Bachelor in Wuhan University of Science and Technology, China. Major in environment engineering.
• 2003-2006 Master in Wuhan University of Science and Technology. Studied photocatlysis of goethite mineral for decomposition of pollutant in waster water.
• 4th of Sep. 2006-Now PhD in ACeSSS, UniSA. Development of high power ultrasonics for improved settling and dewatering of clay wastes

Start Date
September 2007

Project Details
Tailings treatment is a complex and serious problem facing mining and mineral processing industries worldwide. A considerable amount of costly flocculant is needed in the tailing treatment, still problems faced by the industry in the long-term storage of tailing residues are:

• Very restricted availability of additional land area for; Settling is often too slow with turbid overflows in thickeners and in dam storage.
• Cost of flocculants in both operating budget and environmental controls is too high;
  
• Inability to access the wastes for recycling due to low slurry densities;
• Final treatment of the tailings mud to meet environmental standards.

The applying of high power ultrasonic can assist the flocculation and improve the bed density, thus less flocculant would be used and more water would be released from bed for recycle reuse.