Tailings, HL & Waste
Issue #44: Tailings, Heap Leach & Waste Focus
Anglo Platinum, Mogalakwena
This project involved establishing, commissioning and operating a pilot scale thickener, deposition flumes and evaporation paddocks. The aim of the test work was to characterise the tailings material in terms of rheology and geotechnical properties and to calculate the water consumption of the tailings material at different slurry densities. read full article…
Challenges of tailings disposal in Russia and CIS countries
SRK has a strong track record in assisting clients in Russia and other CIS countries with developing Bankable Feasibility Studies and auditing existing and prospective tailings disposal facilities. A Bankable Feasibility Study refers to the design and costing of a project in accordance with standards accepted by the international financial community that meet both international and Russian engineering requirements. read full article…
Esperanza thickened tailings project
SRK has recently concluded the detail engineering of the Minera Esperanza (ME) tailings storage facility and is currently providing technical supervision for construction. The Esperanza tailings facility is located in northern Chile, in the Atacama Desert and will be the largest thickened tailings facility in the world. Recently, ME was distinguished with the Innovation Award of the Year 2009 in Chile for its efforts in conserving water. read full article…
Seepage control at the Colomac tailing containment area
The Colomac gold mine, located at 64° latitude in northern Canada, operated intermittently from 1989 to 1997. The main tailings dam (Dam 1) was built in a narrow, flat-bottomed valley at the original, drainage outlet from a natural lake. The dam foundation consisted of glacial soils overlying bedrock in a discontinuous, warm permafrost setting, with an unfrozen zone (talik) in the valley thalweg. read full article…
SRK leads investigation of very coarse granular materials
The challenge faced by some mines in the Andean mountain range is the lack of available space for waste dumps, given the steepness of the typical mountainous topography. Because of this, there is an even more urgent need to design dumps hundreds of meters high, in some cases reaching unprecedented heights. In these cases, detailed knowledge of the geomechanical behavior of the waste material becomes essential. read full article…
Constructing water balance models using GoldSim™
SRK Chile has recently incorporated the GoldSim™ tool as part of the range of services that the tailings and heap leach group offer to our clients. GoldSim™ is a general program that can be used to simulate almost any process, incorporating the probabilistic simulation of complex systems. While applications for this software in the engineering field are extensive, SRK is currently limiting its use to the construction of water balance models. read full article…
Solutions to reduce infiltration
SRK has successfully conducted a feasibility study of medium and long term solutions to infiltration and water management problems for one tailing storage facility (TSF) located in the central valley of Chile. Monitoring wells in the region identified the problem with this TSF is that sulfate concentration has increased in the aquifer. The problem is exacerbated by an increase in the volume of the supernatant pond; therefore, actions to increase water consumption or removal of the contaminant need to be implemented. read full article…
Penstock decant system for large tailings dams
SRK Johannesburg has again become involved in the design of ring dyke tailings dams to accommodate a fairly large deposition rate. The availability of sufficient land is becoming a problem and is increasing the final heights of the tailings dams. The tailings dams therefore have to be designed to use the available space effectively and this is resulting in tailings dams covering an area of approximately 700 to 800ha and with heights of between 80 and 120 meters at the final penstock inlet system. read full article…
Numerical modelling of mineral sands
SRK used numerical modelling on a 3D MS Excel platform to solve challenges involving the deposit of a heavy minerals thickened paste on natural valley slopes, to determine maximum coverage and hang-up, and evaluate the potential increase or decrease in design target dry densities of the slimes. read full article…
Giroux Wash tailings impoundment
The Giroux Wash tailings impoundment at the Robinson Mine in Nevada receives a nominal 42,000 tons per day of milled, processed sulfide flotation tailings. The facility has a compacted earth starter embankment with the majority of embankment raise construction achieved via the centerline construction method using the coarse fraction of cycloned tailings slurry. read full article…
Long term stockpiling of copper ore at Batu Hijau Mine
PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara plans to stockpile approximately 500Mt of copper ore for up to 20 years at the Batu Hijau mine on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia. Cu recovery from unoxidised ore is about 85%. It was not clear what the impact of oxidation would be on recovery after ore was stockpiled for 20 years. read full article…
Process pond modifications to mitigate groundwater elevation increase
When rising groundwater elevations posed a potential risk to the integrity of existing geomembrane pond liners, Barrick Cortez, Inc. (Barrick) retained SRK for engineering modifications to the process ponds. SRK performed expedited project planning, geotechnical evaluation, water balance analysis, and engineering design to meet tight compliance deadlines. read full article…
Tailings storage facility expansion
SRK was commissioned by Focus Minerals Limited to provide professional services associated with their Three Mile Hill in-pit tailings storage facility (TSF) in Western Australia. This facility forms part of the Coolgardie Gold Project and currently receives tailings at a rate of 1.2 Mtpa. Focus requested that SRK undertake an evaluation of the current operations and design the required expansion in support of a mining proposal. read full article…
Solid waste landfills
Since the late 1990s, SRK Reno has been providing solid waste landfill design and permitting services for small municipalities in Nevada, Utah, and California. Services have included the design and permitting of landfill and transfer stations, preparing and implementing closure plans, the design and installation of landfill gas and groundwater monitoring systems, quarterly groundwater monitoring, and construction and reclamation and closure bond costs. read full article…
Experience gained from tailings dam audits
Recently SRK was requested to review 15 old tailings dams in Zambia and evaluate the work required to close them. These tailings dams are all located in the tropics, in an area with high annual rainfall and with summer thunder showers that cause high-intensity rainfall events. While the tailings deposition ceased more than ten years ago, not all the tailings dams were closed after the end of the deposition. All are in a state of disrepair, the degree varying from site to site. The lessons learned can be applied to the design of new tailings dam storage facilities (TSF) under similar climatic conditions. read full article…
Synthetic liner pipe penetration
SRK Reno has designed a “boot” configuration that can be used for pipeline penetrations through a synthetic HDPE geomembrane pond liner; it has been approved via regulatory permitting processes for construction. The boot design, illustrated in the figure below, provides a drainage connection to the low point in a secondary liner to collect and dissipate fluids leaking through the primary liner, thus eliminating the potential for head development and leakage from the secondary liner. read full article…
New tailings impoundment feasibility design in Senegal
SRK completed the feasibility design of a tailings management facility (TMF) for the Oromin Joint Venture Group at the Sabodala Project in Senegal in 2010. To ensure a consistent water supply to the mine, the TMF facility will be used as a water reservoir during the rainy season to supplement a purpose-built water reservoir of 9.7 million cubic meters about 9 km from the mine site, which SRK also designed. read full article…
Benefits of designing for closure in Nevada
Before a tailings facility can be constructed in Nevada, detailed engineering design must be approved at state level, including plans describing process fluid operating protocols and methods and costs for disposing of process fluids and stabilising process materials. A reclamation plan must be prepared and approved by state and government regulators with a bond posted for these costs (“reclamation bond”), often funded by cash on hand. SRK recently permitted a new disposal system for flotation tailings in Nevada. read full article…
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