Rockfill embankment construction on tailings-realistic, cost-effective and reliable application at Xstrata, Mount Isa, Australia

摘要

Mount Isa Mines Ltd (MIM), Queensland, Australia, was formed in 1923 when a discovery of silver lead ore was made. At the beginning, the production was focused on lead-zinc-silver mined underground with little focus on copper. Currently, copper is mined in two underground mines and lead-zinc is mined in two open cuts and an underground mine. It was not until June 2003 that Xstrata officially took control of Mount Isa Mines Ltd. In general terms, the geology of the mining area is comprised mainly of Urquhart shale and Spear siltstone. The history of the Xstrata Mount Isa Mines tailings storage facility (TSF) stretches back to the 1930s with the construction of the No. 1 tailings facility. The current tailings storage facility has two existing and five decommissioned dams. The existing dams, Nos. 7 and 8 comprise five external walls with nine internal groynes covering an estimated area of 1,300 hectares. Current operational capacity, as of Q2 2009, was approximately 16 million cubic metres with more capacity identified in late 2009 with the utilisation of the western and southern evaporation ponds.