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Document
Description
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A survey of Western Australian (WA) mining
industry undertaken in 1992 by the Chamber of Mines and
Energy of Western Australia identified that the highest
priority research issue to be addressed was the very poor
understanding of the consolidation behaviour of tailings;
particularly the saline tailings produced by the gold industry
in WA. The major aims of the project were to:
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Investigate the consolidation behaviour
of saline and non-saline tailings, concentrating on
the gold industry in WA;
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Investigate and quantify the effect of
evaporation on consolidation behaviour;
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Investigate the effect of salinity on
evaporation from tailings and evaporation induced consolidation
of these tailings;
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Develop techniques to allow the filling
and post-filling behaviour of tailings in tailings storages
to be modelled numerically, taking account of evaporation;
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Investigate the state of both active and
recently decommissioned gold tailings storages in WA,
with the storages chosen to provide a good coverage
over tailings type (particularly clay content), salinity
and rate of filling;
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Develop a database on material properties,
linking consolidation behaviour to basic tailings properties
such as the tailings particle size distribution (grading)
curve and particularly the amount and type of clay content.
The report consists of two volumes: The Main
Report – Volume 1 and an Appendices Report – Volume
2. The Main Report contains a description of all phases
of the project, and the main findings of the work. The Appendices
Report presents the field and laboratory data, and reports
by the Chemistry Centre of WA on the findings from the study
of storage chemistry. 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.
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