MMIJ Annual Meeting

The oxidation of sulfide minerals (e.g., pyrite, arsenopyrite, etc.) cauese the formation of acid mine drainage (AMD), an acidic leachate with elevated concentrations of heavy metals, and thus the surrounding environment will be seriously damaged if released without appropriate treatments. However, the AMD formation is typically continued for several centuries or even millennia. Carrier-microencapsulation (CME) is a technique that create protective coatings selectively on the surface of sulfide minerals, so it could be one of the effective ways of suppressing the AMD formation. Moreover, CME is recently applied to flotation process for controlling the hydrophobicity of specific sulfide minerals. In this paper, the application of CME techniques for suppressing AMD formation as well as improving flotation separation of sulfide minerals will be reviewed.