Prolonged development of ore deposits, ore beneficiation and metallurgical smelting of concentrates result in the accumulation of wastes, forming large-scale dumps and sludge ponds negatively affecting the environment and human health. The creation and introduction of industrial waste treatment technologies will make it possible to dispose of them with the production of valuable commercial products and improve the environmental situation. In a research article on chemical beneficiation with the subsequent gravitational beneficiation of chrome-containing slurry tailings of Donskoy Ore-Mining and Beneficiation Plant (DOMBP), which processes chrome ore of the Kempirsay deposit in the Republic of Kazakhstan, Aktobe region, having considerable stocks of such waste is presented. The chromium-containing slurry tailings were heat-treated at 1100 °C, sintered with ammonium sulfate, water and sulfuric acid in a defined ratio at 300 °C, and then the resulting sinter was leached with water at 90 °C. The cake was washed to separate the liquid part from the solid part. The solid precipitate is the chromium-containing cake, which is upgraded by gravity concentration to a grade concentrate for ferroalloy production. When the solution is evaporated, magnesium sulfate with ammonium sulfate forms the Tutton’s salt ammoshenite. High-throughput chromium oxide extraction of 93.9% was achieved as a result of the research, and three products were obtained: (1) standard chromium concentrate with 49.48% Cr₂O₃ content, (2) ammoshenite used as a nitrogen–magnesium fertilizer and (3) forsterite, which is concentrated in gravity concentration tailings and can be used in the production of refractory minerals.

The article provides an overview of studies on the causes of the formation of hydrogen sulfide in anaerobic conditions of urban sewage systems and methods for neutralizing toxic reagent sulfur‐containing compounds. It is noted that the presence of sulfur compounds and organic components in sewage flow leads to the formation and release of hydrogen sulfide into the atmosphere of settlements. Three main categories of methods for purifying sewage wastewater from hydrogen sulfide are presented. In this work, a complex alumina‐ferrous coagulant has been developed from Kazakh raw materials. Based on natural ferruginous diatomite and middlings of sintered alumina, a complex alumina‐ferrous coagulant has been synthesized, which is effective in purifying wastewater from hydrogen sulfide, accelerating the processes of sedimentation and clarification of sewage slurries. Experimental results also show that with the supply of increased amounts of coagulant, oil and oil films disappear from the surface of the cylinder, an almost complete purification of effluents from hydrogen sulfide compounds occurs, and the color of the liquid part is greatly reduced. In addition, the advantage of the developed reagent is that it is presented in the form of fine powder and can be easily dosed and added to a canalization pump station to interact with diluted hydrogen sulfide and be transported to sewage fields. Compared to other proposed methods in previous works, the reagent is suitable to be used directly in sewage systems such as sewage waters treatment plants and collectors to prevent hydrogen sulfide emission into the air atmosphere of populated areas, as well as at city sewage water treatment stations after air tanks and before secondary clarifiers to obtain better purified water suitable for watering agricultural plants.

This paper examines a three-stage countercurrent hydrochloric acid leaching of phosphogypsum to enhance the recovery of rare earth elements while simultaneously producing a technologically valuable gypsum product. The phosphogypsum under study has a ΣREE content of 340.53 g/t and consists primarily of CaSO4·2H2O dihydrate with minor silicate and phosphate impurities. The countercurrent leaching process is shown to ensure efficient reagent distribution and profound destruction of the gypsum matrix. At a solid: liquid ratio of 1:10, the overall recovery of rare earth elements reaches 88%, while at a solid: liquid ratio of 1:4, it is 82.4%, accompanied by a threefold increase in the ΣREE concentration in the productive solutions. X-ray phase analysis of the residue confirmed that complete removal of calcium sulfate from the solid phase is achieved at a solid-liquid ratio of 1:10, while at a solid-liquid ratio of 1:4, some sulfate phases are retained. The precipitate that forms during cooling of the solution is represented by CaSO4·2H2O and is successfully converted by heat treatment (165°C, 4 h) into the hemihydrate form CaSO4·0.5H2O. The strength of the obtained material (5.1 MPa) corresponds to that of G5 gypsum binder. The obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of three-stage countercurrent leaching and confirm the possibility of comprehensive processing of phosphogypsum, which ensures the production of productive solutions suitable for further sorption or extraction enrichment of rare earth elements, as well as a gypsum residue that meets the requirements of the construction industry.

There is a review of current researches in the processing of poor-grade manganese raw materials. The variety of manganese minerals caused by the valent state of metal in compounds is demonstrated. Different processing methods for manganese-containing mineral and technogenic raw materials are considered. The process of extraction of manganese from ferruginous manganese ore using reduction roasting and magnetic separation, beneficiation technology of poor-grade manganese ore to improve the ratio of Mn/Fe; processes of beneficiation and sintering of fine ferruginous manganese ore with low manganese content; production of agglomerate from the concentrate of manganese poor-grade ore to produce ferrosilicon manganese are described. Results of the authors researches intended to obtain concentrate from manganese-containing sludge and to produce hardened pellets suitable for melting into ferromanganese on its basis using a new component of the binder are presented.

During the processing of chromium ores, chromite concentrate is obtained for the production of ferrochrome, and waste is also collected - tailings beneficiation. Fragment and sludge tailings depending on the beneficiation technology. Finely dispersed sludge tailings of the Donskoy MPP of Kazchrome JSC are stored at the Dubersay and Akzhar tailings, which are man-made deposits (MMD) or man-made mineral formations (MMF). To develop a technology for processing sludge tailings, which contain up to 30% chromium oxide, their physical and chemical studies were carried out. According to the chemical analysis of sludge tailings, it follows that research should be directed to the removal of magnesium and silicon oxides, thereby increasing the content of chromium oxide to a standard chromium concentrate. A very thin dissemination of chromite with minerals of host rocks necessitates additional grinding of intermediate products, which are intergrowths of chromite with waste rock. According to the results of fractional analysis and IR spectroscopy, the content of a large number of flocculants in the studied sludge tailings and a large number of particles with a particle size of less than 20 μm, which, in heavy liquid solutions, due to its small size, is in suspension and does not stratify, was revealed. According to the granulometric composition, it was determined that the sludge minus 0.071 mm must also be classified into 0.04 and 0.02 mm and enriched each class separately. It has been established that in order to obtain high technological performance, the traditional gravitational beneficiation scheme used at the DMPP is technologically cumbersome, because includes operations of flocculant disintegration, classification, grinding, beneficiation on concentration tables of each size class, regrinding of intermediate products. The results of the physicochemical study of chromium sludge tailings showed the need for a combined beneficiation scheme, including chemical enrichment with finishing of chromium concentrate by gravity beneficiation.