The medium grade iron ores contain high ultrafine fractions of soft slime which result in poor dewatering characteristics. Herein, a detailed study was conducted to assess the settling behaviour of iron slimes or tailings using a novel starch-based binary graft copolymeric flocculant (St-g-(pAAm-co-pSS)) and the performance was compared with four commercial reagents. The copolymer has been synthesized by grafting of acrylamide and sodium p-styrene sulfonate on starch using free radical polymerization. The polymer demonstrated outstanding settling behaviour with respect to settling speed and capacity to remove turbidity during iron-ore tailings flocculation as compared to other commercial reagents. An optimal dosage of synthesized reagent has been recommended based on the mud-level index and settling rate, for single-step and multi-step addition to the iron tailings slurry. The synthesized reagent has been assessed upon its capacity to produce clear overflow water and compaction of the solids.

中品位铁矿石含有高含量的超细软泥浆，导致脱水性能差。本文中，进行了详细的研究，以评估使用新型淀粉基二元接枝共聚物絮凝剂（St-g-（pAAm-co-pSS））的铁泥或尾矿的沉降行为，并将其性能与四种市售试剂进行了比较。该共聚物是通过自由基聚合将丙烯酰胺和对苯乙烯磺酸钠接枝到淀粉上而合成的。与其他市售试剂相比，该聚合物在铁矿石尾矿絮凝过程中的沉降速度和去除浑浊的能力方面表现出出色的沉降性能。根据泥浆液位指数和沉降速率，推荐了最佳的合成试剂剂量，用于将铁尾矿浆单步和多步添加。已对合成试剂产生清澈的溢水和固体压实的能力进行了评估。