| PATENT CLAIMS |
A mineral recovery process comprising a main sepn stage of which mineral is slurried with water & separated into an enriched fraction & a dilute aq clay waste, & the waste sedimentation stage in which the dilute aq clay waste is sedimented in one or more settling lagoons to provide a solid clay sediment & supernatant, & in which the waste sedimentation stage comprises feeding the dilute aq clay waste into a well, flocculating the dilute aq waste by mixing a polymeric flocculant into the dilute aq clay waste, sedimenting the flocculated dilute aq clay waste to provide a pumpable thickened clay sediment layer in the well & a supernatant layer, recycling the supernatant layer from the well back to the main sepn stage
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