Construction of acid storage pool and hip leach with geomembrane
Heap Leaching
It is a process in which the target substance is separated by dissolving it in a suitable solvent, and then the target substance can be extracted from the solvent with special methods. This process is widely used in chemical and mineral industries.
Due to the aforementioned reasons, geomembranes are neutral materials that do not react with acid.
Due to this feature, it is the only option for building an acid storage pool and heap leach and leaching ponds.
Heap leaching or the theory of solid-liquid extraction seems like a simple technology at first glance, but it is actually a complex operation. There are many specialists and special protocols in the success of this operation, such as mining engineers, geologists, geotechnical engineers, chemists, and environmental experts. And… they are stuck.
Advantages of heap leaching and acid storage ponds
Reduction of investment cost and operational cost
Quick refund
No waste production
Simple design and equipment
Less damage to the environment
Fast preparation and construction
Reducing energy and water consumption
The possibility of extracting valuable metals from waste
Description of copper leaching process and acid storage pool
Important leaching methods include in-situ leaching, mass leaching or hip leaching, column or pond leaching, agitation or mechanical leaching, pressurized or autoclave leaching, and bacterial leaching (bacterial leaching, microbial leaching or…
In order to prevent the leakage of acid and liquids contaminating water and soil to the environment around the mines, the best way to insulate the tank and pond is to store special materials with geomembrane sheets.
Today, the use of geomembrane sheets with high resistance against corrosive factors has become common in the insulation of tailings dams, evaporation ponds, mining leaching tanks and pools, and acid storage pools.
Geomembrane is a neutral material and does not react with acid, because of this characteristic, the only option for building an acid storage pool is a geomembrane sheet.
The acid storage pool is used to store acidic materials such as: sulfuric acid, nitric acid, chlorine acid and sodas.
Another use of these ponds can be mentioned for plating different materials such as aluminum, zinc, etc.
These ponds have cooling and heating coils according to the customer’s needs, and the diameter and length of the coils can be designed according to the cooling and heating defined by the customer.
Also, the capacity of these types of ponds varies from 100 liters to 10,000 liters according to the customer’s needs.
Acid storage pool process
In cooling coils, a cooling unit is used to cool the fluid inside the coil tubes, which can cool its temperature from minus 20 degrees to 20 degrees Celsius.
In heating coils, a heating boiler should be used to heat the fluid in the heating range of 60 to 120 degrees Celsius.
How to implement anti-acid and chemical protection coatings and their types in the acid storage pool
In the industry, there are sectors where concrete is directly affected by salt water (caissons and water inlets in petrochemical water treatment units) or corrosive substances and hospital and oil wastes (sewage treatment plants and hospital septic tanks).
and strong acid and base (refining chemical houses, production halls, neutralization unit injection pump area, pipe racks of transmission pipes or acid and base storage tanks, halls and trenches of steam halls of power plants).
Choosing the right anti-corrosion coating requires extensive knowledge in the field of chemical resistance of various materials based on the strength and weakness of the corrosion rate and the strength of acids and bases.
The steps to create hip leach are as follows:
First, the desired surface is leveled with a certain slope and a layer with a thickness of about 30 to 80 cm of granulated soil is poured on it and compacted. Geomembrane or other suitable insulation is applied on it.
The next step is the implementation of the drainage layer and the corresponding piping, then the desired product (granulated stones containing minerals) is transferred to the hip leach area with the help of transfer equipment and loaded to a height of about 8 to 15 meters. Mass face is done.
Then the leaching agent, which is a chemical and often acidic substance, is sprinkled from the top of the pile on the mineral soil mound and collected by the pipes that were embedded in the drainage layer. This cycle continues until the solution reaches a certain percentage of The mineral that has been calculated in advance arrives and then other processes necessary for extraction are performed on it.
Arin Khak Iranian Engineering Group, with a decade of experience in producing and supplying geomembrane products, geotextiles, dimple sheet and other geosynthetic products, provides the best products for customers in the world and international projects.
