Production of premium fuels from coal refuse pond material

Because of increasing production of fine coal during mining over the past c entury and because of inefficient fine-coal recovery technologies, a vast r eserve of high-quality coal now exists in refuse ponds. A novel fine-coal c ircuit, consisting of a hindered-bed classifier, an enhanced gravity concen trator and a flotation column, was evaluated for the recovery of fine coal from refuse ponds. The treatment of a pond derived from Pittsburgh No. 8 se am coal resulted in the production of a premium fuel containing less than 5 % ash and a calorific value of about 30,170 kJ/kg with 60% mass yield. Res ults from the treatment of two refuse pond materials are presented in this paper.