Mercury collection system
OwnerPaul Milton Cliftinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for collecting mercury from feed material that can be tailings comprises: a water inlet for forming a slurry containing the tailings; at least one screen for separating tailings greater than ¼ inch in diameter from the slurry to form a screened slurry; a rotatable collection chamber containing a plurality of plates, a drive for rotating the collection chamber for collecting mercury on the plates to provide a discharge material comprising water and treated tailings, the treated tailings containing less mercury than in the feed material.
Claims30
Apparatus for collecting mercury from a feed material containing mercury, the apparatus comprising:
- a) a rotatable collection chamber having a wall and a longitudinal axis;
- b) a feed material inlet for introducing the feed material into the chamber
- c) a drive for rotating the chamber;
- d) a plurality of plates in the chamber, each plate having an exterior surface formed of a collection material for collecting mercury from the feed material, each plate being in a plane intersecting the longitudinal axis, wherein the collection material is selected from the group consisting of copper, silver, gold, and combinations thereof;
- and
- e) an outlet from the chamber for having feed material from which mercury has been collected removed from the chamber.
A method for collecting mercury from tailings comprising the steps of:
- a) forming a slurry comprising the tailings and water, wherein the tailings in the formed slurry are less than ¼ inch in diameter, and wherein the tailings in the slurry contain a first percentage by weight of mercury;
- b) introducing the slurry into a rotatable collection chamber containing a plurality of plates, each plate having an exterior surface with a collection material thereon, the collection material selected from the group consisting of gold, silver, and copper, each plate having mercury on an exterior surface;
- c) rotating the chamber wherein mercury collects on the plates providing a discharge material comprising water and treated tailings, the treated tailings containing substantially no mercury or a second percentage by weight of mercury, the second percentage being less than the first percentage;
- d) discharging the discharge material from the chamber;
- and
- e) separating the water from the treated tailings.
A system for collecting mercury from tailings, the tailings containing a first percentage by weight of mercury, the system comprising:
- a) a water inlet for forming a slurry containing the tailings;
- b) at least one screen for separating tailings greater than ¼ inch in diameter from the slurry to form a screened slurry;
- c) a rotatable collection chamber having a longitudinal axis and containing a plurality of plates, the plates extending in a direction to intersect the longitudinal axis;
- d) a collection chamber inlet for introducing the screened slurry into the chamber;
- e) a drive for rotating the collection chamber for collecting mercury on the plates to provide a discharge material comprising water and treated tailings, the treated tailings containing substantially no mercury or a second percentage by weight of mercury, the second percentage being less than the first percentage;
- f) an outlet from the collection chamber for discharging the discharge material from the collection chamber;
- and
- g) a separation system for separating the treated tailings from the water in the discharge material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.