most readily achieved in new mining projects and hence change in tailings management for the mining industry as a whole will be generational. For context, this chapter first describes conventional tailings management, arguing that applying NPV accounting to tailings management supports the transportation of tailings as a slurry to a facility, with
Coal gangue, copper mine tailings, gold tailings, iron tailings, tungsten mine wastes Substitution of mine wastes for some portion of clay/aggregates in cement production. Pyrite and oxygen-rich minerals in mine wastes lowered the calcination temperature for making cement clinker because their decompositions release heat and …
Mine sites typically manage tailings by constructing ponds secured by dams. According to the web site miningfacts, another strategy is to produce thickened tailings, which are pressed or have chemicals added to remove excess water. Thickened tailings can be mixed with cement and used in construction or as backfill in underground mines.
Copper mine tailings contain considerable quantities of critical materials including rare earths. ... However, it should be mentioned that the valorization of tailings may be profitable in most cases if environmental, social and safety factors are considered, e.g. chemical and physical stabilization, land reclamation, social license to operate. ...
How mine tailings storage facilities (TSF) are managed reflects the history, regulatory framework, and environment of a country and locale of the mine. Despite many attempts to find an environmentally friendly strategy for tailings management and governance that balances the needs of society and the ecosystem, there is no …
industry to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste via ecological and profitable strategies. ... For the copper mine tailings studied by [9], the optimum curing temperature is around 90 °C. Therefore ...
Assessing Arizona's tailings-hosted critical metals resource and developing viable means of extraction thus has huge potential for savings over the cost to find (let alone extract) …
Mining, the Environment, and Politics; A mineral deposit is a place in Earth's crust where geologic processes have concentrated one or more minerals at greater abundance than in the average crust. An ore …
While the differences between tailings can differ between countries and mines, some common traits can be said about copper tailings in general. In reference to Table 3 and ternary diagrams for chemical compositions of copper slag and copper tailing that are given in Fig. 2 (c) and Fig. 2 (d), the main component by weight is powdered crystalline ...
Adding to this, the legacy of environmental damage from abandoned mines is worrying; in Canada there are around 10,000 abandoned mines, 50,000 in Australia, 6,000 in South Africa, and 9,500 …
The copper speciation in tailings from porphyry copper mining is highly dependent on the particle size. This was found investigating tailing from El Teniente copper mine near Rancagua, Chile. In the smallest particles of the tailing the dominating species of copper are carbonates and oxides—around 70% of the solids.
Tailings ponds are one of the three major production facilities in metal mines. The volume of tailings increases year by year, but the storage capacity of existing tailings ponds is limited. Therefore, …
The re-processing of mine tailings to obtain critical raw materials (CRMs) could reduce the mining of new deposits as well as ensure the profitable use of the waste materials.
By reprocessing tailings, dewatering them and then storing them in a dry stack, mines can remove some of the economic, environmental and societal risks …
Copper is one of the most important base metals and is widely used in industry. In the Earth's crust, copper is most often present in the form of copper–iron-sulfide and copper sulfide, such as the minerals chalcopyrite (CuFeS 2) and chalcocite (Cu 2 S). About 80% of copper ore originates from Cu-Fe-S minerals, primarily chalcopyrite …
The disposal of tailings, based on the backfilling into an underground mine, was successfully implemented for many years in the DR Congo mining industry by Gécamines, the country's leading state-owned mining company, and later on by Kamoto Copper Company in the Lualaba region (Countois et al., 2003; Jabin-Bevans et al., …
In addition to the metals recovery from the tailings, also the mineral fraction in the tailings can be valuable. With reprocessing, the mine tailings can be modified to …
"These minerals might not have been of interest when first extracted but could now be in hot demand as the world seeks to decarbonise – for example, cobalt in the tailings of old copper mines." The Global Tailings Portal – a free, searchable database with detailed information on more than 1,800 mine tailings storage facilities (TSFs ...
hua et al. (2011) [45] used tailings fro m copper mines and co al gangs as substitute s for clay to make cement clinker. Copper slag is also being used in the manufacture of roof tiles,
Imagine a big hole in the ground, similar to the one pictured above. Now imagine that pit filled with up to 10 billion tons of mining waste.
The generation of tailings in the world today is immense, since only ounces or pounds of metals are extracted for each ton of ore processed. In 2022, it was estimated that more than 14 billion metric tons of mining tailings were produced per year in the world. Currently, many environmental problems associated with tailings management in …
Chilean copper mine tailings have substantial economic potential as a source of critical materials such as vanadium, cobalt, rare earth elements and antimony.
Chile has exhausted much of its copper rich ores and now utilises biomining, while Uganda has been extracting cobalt from copper mine tailings for over a decade.
Say a copper mine produced 1Mt of metal in 1999 at 90% recovery. The remaining 10% of copper, around 111kt, went to tailings. ... The reprocessing of tailings offers a potentially profitable way to do that, and something tells me we'll be hearing a lot more about it over the next five years. Share this: Twitter;
Manganese-rich tailings can be used in coatings, glass, ceramics, and ceramic glazes. Bauxite-rich tailings can be used in alum and shotcrete production. …
In this scenario, recycling mine tailings can help reduce the number of tailings for disposal. Circular economy, recyclability, recycling, and reuse have been identified as emerging solutions that can drive the …
A new study released by CRU Group has found more than 43 million tonnes of copper is sitting idle in waste dumps at mines across the globe. The metal is considered too difficult to extract...
Therefore, mine waste has multiplied enormously. As mine technologies are developed to make it more profitable to mine low grade ore, even more waste will be generated in the future. Waste from the Mining Process. Ore is mineralized rock containing a valued metal such as gold or copper, or other mineral substance such as coal.
With advent of novel technologies, mining companies are now figuring out ways to extract valuable metals from tailings. In gold, copper sulfide and iron ore tailings, the potential of extracting minerals is an opportunity. Reprocessing tailings to collect the valuable minerals can be a cost-effective approach compared to processing material.
In this scenario, recycling mine tailings can help reduce the number of tailings for disposal. Circular economy, recyclability, recycling, and reuse have been identified as emerging solutions that can drive the multidimensional aspects of sustainability in the mining and metal extraction industries. ... Ahmari, S.; Zhang, L. Production of eco ...
When a preliminary feasibility study for a mineral project is not yet complete, but you want to estimate the mineral deposit value, you can use the back-of-the-envelope calculation described in this article.. Before calculating the potential mineral deposit value, gather specific data about the ore body and individual drill results.This data can be found in the …
Mineral commodities commonly recovered in the United States are copper, gold, silver, iron, lead, zinc, uranium and coal. The commodity, as a product, is sold and used to fabricate many things such as parts for a car, electrical cable for energy transmission and jewelry. ... On some occasions, backfilling a pit with tailings can reduce or ...
The company announced its intentions for a silver-gold tailings project in Sonora, Mexico where it has access to materials accumulated from production at the El Tigre mine between 1903 and 1938 ...
The total global reserve of Co is estimated to be around 7.1 million tons, of which the DRC holds the largest reserve of 3.6 million tons [55].Australia has the second largest reserve of Co, but it only produced 4971 tons in 2020 [55].The global production of Co was 140 kt in 2020 and the DRC produced highest 68% of Co [3].Co is primarily …
Since every ton of copper produced requires mining and processing roughly 250 tons of rock, the past century of major mining has generated an estimated 17.5 B tons of tailings (i.e., nearly 10 cubic km of finely ground, copper-depleted waste rock), with upwards of 200 M tons now added annually and more to come as more copper is mined.
There is a need to define mine tailings in a clear, precise, multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and holistic manner, considering not only geotechnical and hydraulic concepts but also integrating environmental and geochemical aspects with implications for the sustainability of mining. This article corresponds to an independent study that …