Caracterización textural, química y mineralógica de los relaves mineros de Andacollo, Neuquén. Importancia en futuras estrategias para su revalorización.

CORDERO CINTIA; PETTINARI GISELA ; GIAVENO ALEJANDRA ; PONS M. JOSEFINA

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XII Congreso Argentino de Geología Económica; 2020

Asociación Argentina de Geológos Economistas

Andacollo is the only mining district in the Neuquén province, Argentina where metal values are produced. During all the years of exploitation, mineral wastes were generated. At the beginning, the waste was disposed of in natural depressions and later in dikes built specifically for this purpose. Both old and newer tailings contain minerals and trace elements that escaped the concentration processes, which were carried out in the past through amalgamation with mercury and concentration by flotation in the most contemporary treatments. In this work, both materials (old and recent tailings) were characterized textural, chemically and mineralogically. This characterization allowed to defining that both tailings do not produce acid drainage, that elements of economic interest could be recovered from the old tailings and that the composition of the recent tailings could be compatible to manufacture construction materials (masonry and road works) and as macro and micronutrients for soil amendments