Laboratory study of the clogging process and factors affecting clogging in a tailings dam

Laboratory simulation of clogging in the Lixi tailings dam (Shaanxi Province, China) is urgently required because clogging is an important factor affecting the dam stability. This work firstly presents the results of ferrous iron oxidation experiments using buffer solution. The results indicate that the ferrous iron oxidation follows first order kinetics, and the oxidation process is strongly dependent on pH, a higher pH resulting in a higher oxidation rate. Furthermore, when the pH exceeds 7.0, the oxidation rate constant increases significantly. Secondly, a column experiment was carried out under the conditions of the pH ranging from 6.8 to 7.5 and the natural oxygen supply. Ferrous iron oxidation and precipitation were found to reach equilibrium under these conditions. After 23 days, the column experiment was stopped when the clogging materials blocked the column outlet. The clogging materials were found to be a mixture of ferric hydroxide and its converted products, and these existed in amorphous form with a loose cluster microstructure according to the results of XRD and SEM.