(1)Mixed System of Tailings Disposal

摘要

One of the key aspects in placement and treatment of filtered tailings is the moisture content atwhich they are deposited. The moisture content depends mostly on the site's weather and theoperational conditions of the filtering process. The tailings storage facility under study is located ata high rainfall area. In addition to this the filtering process is very sensitive to the type of oreprocessed; as a result the tailings differ in their moisture content and rheological behavior. Toachieve operational continuity under these conditions, a mixed system of filtered and thickenedtailings disposal that provides flexibility to deposit tailings according to the varying conditions wasevaluated. The proposed solution is to redesign the existing tailings storage facility so that aretaining wall of compacted filtered tailings could be constructed when weather and operationalconditions allowed. This retaining wall has the capacity to contain the thickened tailings producedunder different conditions. Thereby an operationally flexible design was achieved, that allows safeplacement of most of the tailings volume considered in the original project.