Overview of sand-silt separation technologies

Increased environmental restrictions on the placement of dredged material in open water disposal sites is forcing managers to re-consider upland disposal for dredged material that is not ideally suited for beneficial use because of material composition (contaminants, organics, fines, etc.). Conversely, upland disposal sites have been diminishing as existing sites reach capacity and potential new sits are used instead for higher-priority activities. To address this problem, particle separation techniques, common in other industries, are proposed to separate desirable beneficial use material (e.g. sands for beach nourishment) from undesirable silts. This paper examines some common particle separation technologies in the mining and mineral processing industries with potential application to dredging and dredged material placement/disposal.