淡水正成為一種越來越重要的商品. 硬岩礦開採需要大量的水來開採礦石. 例如, 在智利, 世界上最大的銅生產商, the mining industry uses an average of 70 cubic meters of fresh water to produce one metric ton of copper. To produce the same amount of output from lower-grade ore bodies requires even more fresh water.
This isn’t the only problem. The fresh water that is used for extracting ore usually becomes toxic after use and large dams are needed to hold the polluted leftovers. 全球, there have been a number of failures to these kinds of dams, causing death, injuries, and the contamination of other freshwater sources.
One proposed solution is the use of desalinated water (sea water that has had the salt removed). This presents a couple of other problems: 1. The desalination process is expensive and uses a vast amount of energy, 其中大部分是由燃煤電廠生產的. 2. 它不能解決需要控制和監測的被污染尾礦池的問題. 這是對環境的兩次打擊.
另一個建議的解決方案是回收採礦作業中使用的淡水. 這樣做的潛力是極其昂貴的, 並不總是如此 100% 有效. 而這一過程產生的廢水仍然是劇毒的.
Another potential problem exists when freshwater sources are not available where mining operations are taking place. Freshwater would then need to be shipped in, once again increasing mining costs and doing nothing to alleviate environmental impact concerns. Rising costs produce larger risks for investors, and environmental issues drive tougher government regulation and more aggressive public opposition.
With water-related stress bringing many hard rock mining operations to a standstill, it seems the only valid solution is to remove it from the equation. ST 設備 & 技術的 triboelectric belt separator is a dry process that can process large quantities of mined materials at a high rate. The result is a greater extraction of ores—even from low-grade ore bodies—using energy efficient systems that use no water. That’s a lot of benefits when you add it all up.
