Metallurgical Mine Tailings Rehabilitation

ACG Report No.: 1010-02
Project Team: David Jasper (UWA Centre for Land Rehabilitation) and Richard Jewell (ACG)

This project was derived from an initiative from the Maanshan Institute of Mining Research, China for research into the rehabilitation of iron ore tailings storages near Maanshan and into the suppression of dust form the surfaces of tailings facilities.

The project involved a trial study of rehabiliation of the side slopes of embankments raised by the upstream construction method to be undertaken on a large tailings facility at Gushan and for associated laboratory trials to be undertaken by MIMR. Information gathered from this project is also applicable to the rehabilitation of tailings in Australia. This particularly relates to the potential to dust and the hydrology of stored tailings which must be understood by industry and regulators alike if we are to establish adequate, appropriate and cost effective decommissioning issues.

The report provides an extensive database of information which is an important resource for industry. The findings from the consolidation modelling and from the evaporation studies in particular are extremely important and advance the state-of-the-art in these areas significantly.