Mine and Process Tailings in Turkey:

Current Situation and

Recovery of Tailings

Fırat BURAT*; Gülay BULUT; A. Ekrem YÜCE

Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Mines,

Mineral Processing Engineering Department

e-mail: buratf@itu.edu.tr
 Outline
 Outlook of Turkey Mining Industry
(Statistical Data)
 Marble and Quarry Tailings
 Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from
Coal Washery Tailings
 Red Mud in Seydişehir
 Balya Tailings and Slag
 Kırka Boron Tailings
 Chromite Tailings
 General Outlook for Turkey (2019)

National income per Population

capita: US$ 9.400 83 millions Mineral/energy raw
material production:
655 million tons
Total Capacity:
93,089 MW

Energy production: Mineral-metal

303,8 TWh consumption:
8,0 tons /yr-pp
Energy
consumption:
303,3 TWh
Mineral/energy
Mineral export raw material/
Energy consumption: income: US$ 3.000 metal import cost:
≈ 3650 kW /yr-pp million US$ 30.000 million
 Mineral Resources of Turkey

Approximately, 50 different mineral resources including coal, marble and building

stones have been produced in Turkey.
Black colour: Coal Red colour:Metallic Green colour: Industrial Minerals
 Mineral Resources – Reserves of TURKEY (2018)
Ore type ∑ Reserve x103 Ore type ∑ Reserve
ton x103 ton
Dolomite 17.000.000 Phosphate 70.500
Lignite 13.500.000 Nickel 40.500
Salts 6.750.000 Barite 40.000
Boron 3.500.000 Alunite 4.000
Quartz rock 3.250.000 Manganese 3.250
Trona 2.200.000 Fluorite 2.750
Bituminuous Coal 1.350.000 Zinc – as metal 2.750
Quartz sand 1.350.000 Copper – as metal 2.000
Ceramic clays 455.000 Lead -as metal 950
Zeolite 445.000 Antimony - as metal 150
Feldspar 301.500 Wolframit - as metal 51
Chromite 287.000 Molibdenum as metal 19
Iron 125.000 Silver as metal 7
Magnesite 120.500 Gold as metal 0,9
Kaolin 95.100 Marble-m3 5.150.000
Boxite 90.400 Pumice - m3 1.100.000
Asphaltite 82.000
(+): Gypsum, Asbestos, Diatomite, Granat, Graphite, Emery stone, Mica, Rare
earth metals, Olivine, Perlite, Profillite, Celestite-strontium, Sillimanite, Talc,
Titanium, Vermiculate, Wollastonite, Zirconium, Thorium, Uranium
Energy Profile / Forecasted Energy Mix (2025)

Nuclear Hydro and

Approx.1 Other
% Renewables
At least
Coal and 40%
Fuel-oil
34%

Natural
Gas
At most
25%
Nuclear Raw Material Domestic Resources

 9.100 t U listed in the 2016 Red Book

 There are several uranium fields in western and mid Anatolia
 Australian based Anatolian Energy Ltd. has 18 exploration
licenses. In situ leach will be able to applied.
 Turkey has more extensive Thorium resources.
 Akkuyu NPP Project

Akkuyu site

Sinop NPP Project

 Mining Industry of Turkey
SUPERIORITIES
➢ Country-wide mineral resources - more than 45 different types
➢ Very fast growing in energy fields, industrial minerals
➢ Well educated technical / engineering man power
➢ Possibility of joint venture cooperation with Turkish companies
➢ Reasonable economical growing

WEAKNESSES
➢ Bugdet deficiency
➢ Extreme bureaucracy issues
➢ Small / Medium scale mining operations
➢ Contradiction between mining and environmental priorities
 Tailings of Mining, Power Plant, Marble
Industry of Turkey

815 million tons of solid waste was generated in the

mining operations in 2016.
99% of the waste generated is overburden material/plant waste
that is non-hazardous characteristic.
70.4% of the total waste was disposed of in the waste-land and
regular tailings storage facility.

15.9% was filled into the abandoned quarries, 13% was used
for the rehabilitation of the mine sites and 0.7% was in
municipal dump land (TÜİK, 2017).
In 2018, a total of 26.1
million tons of waste, was
generated at thermal power
plants, while 14.000 tons of
that amount was hazardous
waste category.

89.2% of the total wastes

were ash and slag wastes,
10.7% was metal, paper,
plastic wastes, wastewater
treatment sludges.

While 87.5% of the total waste was stored in ash dam or regular
storage facilities, 12.4% was sent to licensed waste processing
facilities and used for backfilling of mines / quarries, and 0.1%
was disposed of by other methods.
Marble and Quarry Tailings
Annual natural stone production is approximately 11.5 million tons
and the total tile plate production capacity of the processing
facilities is around 6.5 million m2.

Approximately 1,500 natural stone quarries, 2,000 factories, 9,000

medium and small scale workshops operate in the sector.

Depending on the block cutting activities carried out in the

quarries and factories, 30-80% of the production is natural stone
waste.

Coarse-sized wastes make up about 40% of the production in the

quarry and they are wastes that can vary in size from a few cm to
a few meters. These wastes can be in different forms.

Fine-sized wastes corresponding to approximately 30% of natural

stones processed in factories are mostly in dust size (below 150
µm).
Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from
Coal Washery Tailings
The average REE contents in lignite and
bituminous coals as well as lignite
and bituminous coal ashes worldwide have been
estimated to be around 69, 72, 378, and 469
ppm, respectively.

Typical REE Concentration of 116 ppm

•20*109tons coal * (116*10-6parts REE/coal)
= 2.32 million tons REE in Turkish coal

The possible recovery of rare earth

elements from abundant coal and by
products is an exciting new research.
Rare Earth Elements ÖMERLER A ÖMERLER B İMBAT DEREKÖY UYSAL
(46.3) (86.9) (63.1) (39.1) (74.8)
Cerium or Ce (58) 100.1 107.1 92.8 80.4 66.0
Dysprosium or Dy (66) 4.1 4.3 4.3 3.6 3.6
Erbium or Er (68) 2.1 2.3 2.3 1.9 2.1
Europium or Eu (63) 1.6 1.7 1.4 1.5 1.1
Gadolinium or Gd (64) 5.9 6.1 5.5 5.3 4.4
Holmium or Ho (67) 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.7
Lanthanum or La (57) 48.0 53.3 51.7 41.2 29.9
Lutetium or Lu (71) 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5
Neodymium or Nd (60) 40.5 44.6 38.2 39.8 26.0
Praseodymium or Pr 10.6 11.6 10.1 9.7 6.6
(59)
Scandium or Sc (21) 17.6 14.7 10.4 11.7 18.2
Samarium or Sm (62) 6.9 7.8 6.4 7.2 4.9
Terbium or Tb (65) 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.7
Thulium or Tm (69) 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Yttrium or Y (39) 22.4 22.1 22.0 19.6 18.2
Ytterbium or Yb (70). 2.0 2.0 2.2 1.6 1.9
Total (Ash) 265 281 250 227 186
Total (Whole) 123 244 158 89 139

Rare Metals (Ash)

Ga 35 34 43 42 32
Co 62 49 12 15 27
Ni 980 764 36 43 209
Sr 276 307 232 379 276
V 61 49 126 112 71
 RED MUD

In Eti Holding, Seydişehir Aluminium Inc.,

aluminium is manufactured from bauxite ore
by the Bayer process. Roughly 1-1.5 tonnes of red
mud (RM) residue are produced for each tonne of
alumina.

In Turkey, about 500.000 m3 of strongly alkaline

RM-water pulp is dumped annually into special
constructed dams around Seydişehir Aluminum
Plant as production proceeds, and more than
three million tons of RM waste has been
accumulated at the Seydişehir Plant.
Chemical analysis of the red mud in the different countries
 Balya Old Pb-Zn Tailings and Slag
Balya-Balıkesir was mined by French
companies between 1880 and 1935, and
was abandoned later its silver and lead Element Content (%)
contents decreased. Zn 3.12
More than 700.000 tons concentration Pb 3.43
plant tailings with almost 8 percent metal
Cu 0.098
content and 300.000 tons slags with 13
percent metal value are located. Fe2O3 15.93
SiO2 39.63
Al2O3 7.18
CaO 8.48
MgO 0.56
S 11.92
Ag (g/t) 74.0
Au (g/t) 0.71
Kırka Boron Tailings
Turkey currently imports nearly
1,200 tons of lithium annually.
Turkey's inroad in lithium
production will start on a small
scale of 10 tons per year, but
this is expected to rise to
nearly 500 tons in the next two
to three years.
Major (wt%) Oxide Analyses of the Clays from the Borate Deposits
 Chromite Tailings
According to the data of the MTA General Directorate, the resources
detected in 137 beds are around 242 million tons in total. 83% of this
reserves is lower than 10% Cr2O3. Only 5% of the known reserve is
directly salable grade (as lumpy concentrate).

In the last few years, chrome concentrate production is around 2 million

tons per year in Turkey, while the amount of processing plant wastes
are at the level of 8-9 million tons annually.

In approximately 120 chromite enrichment plants in operation, the

recovery efficiency is around 75%, and there are significant losses of
chromite ( ≈ 25%) with the wastes. Chromium (and olivine) can be
recovered from many large and small plant waste.

Most of the chromite deposits contain a significant amount of olivine

mineral which can be recovered as a by-product for the foundry sand.
 One Example: Re-evaluation of Chromite Tailings
based on a graduate thesis that was conducted at ITU labs.
(Thesis advisor: Prof.Dr. A.Ekrem Yüce)

Newspaper article in Turkey

February 16, 2019

«Chromite and olivine minerals are

obtained from mine wastes by hybrid
separation method in the new plant,
which was established on the basis of
the graduation thesis of Ali Anagül, a
mineral processing engineer at Eti
Krom Co. in Elazığ, during his university
years.

With the completion of all stages of the

plant, it is aimed to make a production
of 20 tons per hour and to process 1
million tons of mine waste in 7 years to
contribute 52 million dollars to the
economy»
Mineral Processing Eng. Dept. Pilot
Plant Hole (450 m2)

Thanks for your attention......

Prof.Dr. Gülay Bulut; Prof.Dr. A.Ekrem Yüce; Assoc.Prof.Dr. Fırat Burat

www.cevher.itu.edu.tr e-mail: cevherhazirlama@itu.edu.tr