Put into operation at the end of last year, the project of efficient concentration and dry discharge of tailings of Shuichang Iron Mine of Shougang Mining Company achieved stable operation in the first quarter of 2017, which marked the initial success of the R&D and creation of the whole-process integrated tailings disposal technology. As a leading system project concerning the sustainable development of the mine as well as a revolutionary innovative project in the history of Shougang Mining Company, it systematically solves problems such as insufficient storage capacity of tailings pond of Shuichang Iron Mine, low efficiency of tailings concentration, high consumption in transportation and instable operation of tailings pipeline. It can create annual benefits of more than 50 million yuan and reduce several hundred million yuan of expenses on tailings pond heightening, relocation, land acquisition, etc., achieving huge economic and social benefits.

While providing necessary mineral resources for the development of national economy over the years, China's mining enterprises also have caused huge waste, occupied a large amount of land resources and brought safety problems and environmental pollution. Most of the mines are still building and extending tailings ponds on the ground to discharge tailings, which is increasingly incompatible with the needs of sustainable development of enterprises and the society in terms of economy and policy.

The available storage capacity of Shuichang tailings pond of Shougang Mining Company is seriously insufficient, and its remaining service life is less than 3 years, which severely impeding the sustainable development of Shuichang Iron Mine. For this, Shougang Mining Company has set up a team to carry out R&D of new technology for tailings disposal and established the guiding idea of "reducing the volume of tailings in storage, lowering the grade of tailings pond and reducing the risk in safety and environmental protection" as well as the research thinking "oriented toward efficient tailings concentration, high concentration transportation, dry discharge of tailings, comprehensive utilization of tailings and other new technologies".

At the end of 2015, Shougang Mining Company carried out further demonstration of the scheme discussed many times and organized professional departments and Shuichang Iron Mine to carry out comprehensive research of the cases of efficient tailings concentration, high concentration transportation through first stage pumping station and dry discharge of tailings in China's mines, which finds that there was a gap in large-scale whole-process tailings disposal technology in China's mines, with no large-scale production case. Therefore, the company carried out in-depth and detailed research and was determined to make a new demonstration project in China's mining industry, with the principle of "achieving the most economic yield with the best technology". Meanwhile, according to the working idea of independent R&D, the company abandoned the limitation of unitary and compartmentalized tailings disposal mode in the industry, and carried out bold and repeated improvements and upgrades of technical schemes from the perspective of process orientation and integration. Aimed at prolonging the service life of the tailings pond, reducing transportation consumption and improving the comprehensive utilization of tailings, the scheme transformed the traditional idea of extensive unitary tailings disposal and created the large-scale, whole-process, integrated tailings disposal technology solution and became a leader of the industry.

During the implementation of the project, the fearless and innovative team, solved a series of problems with high efficiency and low cost and created many new technologies.

During the upgrade and transformation of the efficient thickener, from the perspective of saving investment and using existing equipment, technology integration of efficiency upgrading of ordinary thickener was successfully achieved. By changing the slope of the original thickener's bottom and heightening the tank wall and central cylinder, reutilization of thickener's tank body was realized, and investment in new construction of tank body, underflow pumping station and overflow pumping station was saved.

According to the grain size requirement of diaphragm pump on feeding ore pulp, to operate diaphragm pump safely and stably and reduce the consumption of valves and diaphragms of all units, the building sand production line was introduced as a barrier system of diaphragm pump. The building sand production line was built to eliminate the coarse particle tailings and meet the requirement of diaphragm pump technology on the grain size of tailings. Meanwhile, the produced building sand was sold in the market, which brought a new economic growth point and set an example for resource recycling.

Through implementing the project, Shougang Mining Company has successively invented three new technologies of "whole-process integrated tailings disposal", "diaphragm pump feeding" and "technology integration of ordinary thickener efficiency upgrading" and has applied for national patents, making new breakthroughs in tailings disposal technology in the metallurgical and mining industry.

In December, 2016, the project was completed and put into operation. The comprehensive productivity of building sand and dryly discharged sand gradually increased from 30% in the initial stage of production to the target of more than 70%.

The large-scale whole-process tailings disposal technology integrating efficient concentration of tailings, extraction of building sand, dry discharge of tailings and high concentration transportation of tailings through the first stage pumping station are pioneering in China, which are of extensive demonstration significance and a bright promotion prospect.