from Mining and

Mineral Processing
Activities
And their

Management
Compiled by
Bukanga Amuli
May 2020
 Waste from Mining activities:
Waste is produced in
form of
• Barren host rock
Open pit Mine • Spoils (in coal
mining)

Underground Mine
• Deposit of non-economic
grade
• Overburden soil and sand
 WASTE ROCK DISPOSAL

Waste rock = rock produced at a mine (surface or underground)

and will not be processed further.
It is either that part of the deposit that is below the cut-off
grade, or is simply the barren host-rock to the mineral
deposit.

In general rock dumps are not sealed at their base; very high
risk of acid water incursion into the surface drainage system or
subsurface aquifers.
 Waste-rock disposal management

Dumping must be managed

and controlled in order to:
• Maintain stability of water
seeping through (prevent
contamination of surface
water or groundwater)
• The high porosity of dump
rock increases significantly
the risk of AMD production.
 Waste from Mineral processing

Downstream of the mine, mineral processing plants and

smelter sites produce:
• Effluent
• Sludges
• leached ore residues
• Slags
• furnace dusts
• smelting residues
Require appropriate treatment, a safe disposal and
proper monitoring.
Effluent from mineral processing plant
Sludges
Furnace

Slags

Furnace dusts
Waste from Mineral processing (Cont.)
 WASTE WATER

Waste water from a mine may contain:

• ammonia from explosives
• contaminated groundwater

Waste water from processing may contain:

• Flotation reagents, solvents for solvent-extraction,
electrowinning.
• acids or cyanide used in leaching
• Waters
Ammonia for
explosives
Flotation

Flotation reagents
contaminated groundwater
Mineral processing Waste water can be
•Treated and reused
•or discharged to the environment.

There is a trade off between safety and cost:

• Minimizing the production of waste water (high processing cost)
• Containing waters behind a dam (high risk of dam collapsing)
Tailings storage facilities (TSF)
 Tailings storage facilities (TSF)
• Mining operations are never 100% efficient. It is
impossible to reclaim all reusable and expended
processing reagents and chemicals.
• The unrecoverable and uneconomic metals,
minerals, chemicals and process water are
discharged, normally as slurry, to a final
storage area called ‘Tailings Storage Facility
(TSF)’.
 Tailings storage facilities (cont.)
Tailings are stored in engineered
structures or impoundments, called
“tailings storage facilities (TSF)” or
“tailings dams”.

DAMS should be constructed to

• Contain waste materials indefinitely
• Provide long term stability against
erosion and mass movement.
• Achieve negligible seepage of tailings
liquids into ground and surface
waters to prevent contamination of
these waters.
• Prevent failure of dam structures
 Tailings storage facilities (cont.)
In an alternative disposal
approach, no impoundment
is used at all, and tailings
are pumped directly into
rivers (riverine tailings
disposal), lakes
(lacustrine disposal) or
into the ocean and onto the
seafloor at some water
(submarine tailings
disposal – STD).
 Tailings storage facilities (cont.)

DESIGN PARAMETERS

• Chemical composition (including changes to

chemistry through mineral processing) and its ability
to oxidize and mobilize metals
• Physical composition and stability (static and
seismic loading)
• Behavior under pressure and consolidation rates
• Erosion stability (wind and water)
• Settling, drying time and densification behavior
after deposition (getting rid of the water)
Tailings storage facilities (cont.)
Tailings Dams management
Tailings Dams - safe and permanent storage of
tailings material.
Tailings embankments to withstand any potential
catastrophic event (earthquake or flood)
The seepage of tailings water must be under control.
Dispersal of tailings to be prevented by keeping the
tailings material saturated at all times.
 Tailings storage facilities (cont.)
Tailings composition:

Consist of liquid and solid components (20 – 40 weight %solids).

Due to chemicals used in processing, tailings waters may be
• alkaline (due to cyanide)
• acidic (due to sulphuric acid) or
• saline (due to saline water)
They are a complex cocktail of residues of the processing chemicals.
The waters from tailings are highly chemically reactive.
Solids from tailings are very fine grained.
Construction of a dam wall
 Elements of Tailings dam
There is segregation
of solids tailings in
the tailings dam.
The segregation is
based on the grain
size and distance
from the discharge
point
Waters in the tailings dam (Cont.)
Waters in the tailings dam
• Tailings dams remain wet during their entire operational life
• They start drying out after decommissioning

• Contamination below tailings dams are much reduced compared

to rock dumps
• Due to the low porosity of tailings materials and the low
permeability of the liner at the base of the tailings dams