Quantification of water content and evaporation is necessary to identify solutions to minimize water losses and risks related to the management of tailings storage facilities. Water balance calculations are used to quantify the individual parameters of the water balance equation, of which evaporation is tainted with a high level of uncertainty. Closing the water balance is reliant on the accurate quantification of evaporation, which can vary strongly temporally and spatially across a tailings storage facility.High levels of salinity as those found in tailings dam waters and towards the evaporating surface of tailings can reduce evaporation by up to 30% or more. The current approach of using correction factors for the quantification of evaporation does not consider the consequence of varying salt concentrations and may therefore misjudge water loss through evaporation. This may consequently also affect the calculation of other parameters of the water balance equation, like for example deep drainage and seepage of contaminated water into the environment.The objective of the paper is to quantify the importance salts can have on evaporation. Results of a study will be used to generalize the impact salts have on evaporation by using parameters which are easy to determine. A numerical model will be applied to quantify and validate the effect of various salt concentrations on the overall evaporation.
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