Paste filling - an overview to improve the quality of filling material

摘要

The large voids left in the ground by mining operations are generally backfilled by the crushed waste rock, in the form of tailings. Hydraulic fills and paste fills are two of the popular backfill choices. Hydraulic fills are simply silty sands or sandy silts, with the entire clay fraction removed by de-sliming. Paste fills are fine grained tailings that contain clay fraction and some binder that is commonly, cement. The use of backfill serves four main functions: (i) to stabilize the ground to permit the extraction of adjacent ore, (ii) to fill voids to provide regional support, (iii) as a working floor for the next lift of stopes and (iv) for disposal of development waste. This paper describes the characteristics of material require for paste filling in mines.