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New Technologies on Mine Process Tailing Disposal



Author(s)

Bascetin A., Tuylu S., Adıguzel D., and Ozdemir O.

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2193/2016.02.002

Tailings are formed as a result of mine processing. When these tailings are left in an environment in an inappropriate manner, they create a danger against the environment and human health. Therefore, the safe disposal of mine tailings above the ground is environmentally quite important. Today, tailing dams are generally used in the disposal of these mine tailings. However, this method has many environmental disadvantages such as AMD (acid mine drainage), heavy metal mobilization etc. For this reason, the use of alternative methods such as surface paste tailing disposal or geotextile methods are gradually increasing in the world. In this study, the advantages and disadvantages of the surface paste tailing disposal method and tailing disposal method using geotextile material compared to the traditional tailing dam method were evaluated in detail, and, the costs of these three methods for a typical Pb-Zn mine establishment were compared. The analysis indicated that the unit costs of the tailing dam, the surface disposal method, and the geotextile method were calculated as 2.25 $/ton, 2.29 $/ton, and 7.39 $/ton, respectively. However, the unit price of surface paste disposal method become 2.79 $/ton when cement was used. The higher cost of the unit price of the tailing disposal method using geotextile method was attributed to the high cost of geotextile material.

Mine tailing, tailing dam, surface paste disposal, geotextile material.