Waste Rock Management at the Antamina Mine: Overall Strategy and Data Application in the Face of Continued Expansion

摘要

Based on the interpretation of a small dataset at mine start up, waste rock at the Antamina mine has been actively managed using three waste classes and two dump facilities. Geochemical testwork has been aimed at satisfying a detailed bottom-up approach; whereby, the database generated is used to estimate what the water quality could be both short- and long-term based on the current waste segregation. The program has expanded from the typical suite of laboratory testwork to large-scale instrumented waste rock test piles and cover studies as part of a joint University of British Columbia-Teck-ART-National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)-Antamina research project.This paper presents the overall strategy for the Antamina waste rock program, including the path forward for Phase II of the UBC research project. It examines how the wealth of geochemical data (from laboratory to field scale) has been applied to provide options for both short- and long-term water management strategies. Included, are examples of how the dataset generated by UBC is being incorporated into the site-wide Geochemical modelling and some of the strategies that arc being developed to manage the waste rock expected from future expansions at Antamina.