MINE 380 – MINE WASTE MANAGEMENT

MINE 590Q – ADVANCED MINE WASTE MANAGEMENT

TERM 2 – 2022/2023

Lecture 5.1: Water Management and Water

Balance: TSFs
Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering
Dr. Caius Priscu, P.Eng
caius.priscu@ubc.ca

Photo: Red Dog Mine, courtesy of Teck Resources Ltd.

OUTLINE

• General aspects on the need for water balances

• Water management and tailings dam failures
• Tailings storage facility (TSF) water balance - introduction
• Exercises

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RANGE OF MINE WASTE MATERIALS - REVISITED

Solid Materials Liquid Materials

• Rock • Tailings supernatant
• Tailings • Sediments/sedimentation ponds
• Heap leach spent ore • Sludges/sludge ponds
• Overburden piles • Oil
• Low grade stockpiles • Grey and black water (collected
• Tires wash water and sewage)
• Assay waste • Laboratory effluents
• Other • Truck wash water
• Other
Note: some of these solid and liquid
wastes may classify as hazardous
GENERAL IMPORTANT MESSAGE #1

“TAILINGS MANAGEMENT IS ABOUT WATER MANAGEMENT”

• There is water in everything, from mine rock to final concentrate.

• Even dry stack tailings have water!
• It is either too little or too much water!
• Cargo ships sink due to too much moisture and liquefaction of
transported materials! https://www.hindawi.com/journals/amse/2016/5219474/

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GENERAL IMPORTANT MESSAGE #2

“WE CAN NO LONGER OPERATE IN ISOLATION OF OUR COMMUNITIES, IGNORING THE

SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT, INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS”

• Water in mine waste is ONE ASPECT in the big picture.

• TSF and HLP and WRD water balances
• Site-wide or operation-wide water balance OPERATIONAL SCALE BASIN - SCALE

• Catchment basin-wide water balances

• All stakeholders need to be considered

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H. Fleming, WIM, 2019
WATER MANAGEMENT AND RECENT TAILINGS DAM FAILURE

Mount Polley

• Tailings dam did not fail by overtopping

• The high-water level acted in other ways that influenced both the failure and its effects.
• Had the water level been even a meter lower and the tailings beach commensurately wider, this
might have retained fluids until dawn the next morning, allowing timely intervention and potentially
turning a fatal condition into something survivable.

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WATER MANAGEMENT AND RECENT TAILINGS DAM FAILURE

Mount Polley – condition prior to

failure

• Freeboard 2.3 m
• Core build up to provide freeboard
• Downstream rock fill in place for
part of this
• Upstream zone under construction
in selected areas
• Filter and transition zones being
placed in selected areas

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MT. POLLEY TSF FAILURE – RECONSTRUCTION OF BREACH
FAILURE EVENTS FROM FIELD OBSERVATIONS

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MT. POLLEY TSF FAILURE – RECONSTRUCTION OF BREACH
FAILURE EVENTS FROM FIELD OBSERVATIONS

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MT. POLLEY TSF FAILURE – RECONSTRUCTION OF BREACH
FAILURE EVENTS FROM FIELD OBSERVATIONS

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MT. POLLEY TSF FAILURE – RECONSTRUCTION OF BREACH
FAILURE EVENTS FROM FIELD OBSERVATIONS

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MT. POLLEY TSF FAILURE – RECONSTRUCTION OF BREACH
FAILURE EVENTS FROM FIELD OBSERVATIONS

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MT. POLLEY TSF FAILURE – RECONSTRUCTION OF BREACH
FAILURE EVENTS FROM FIELD OBSERVATIONS
• Features observed from Cariboo video late in the failure process indicates a typical
badlands topography
• Combination of high-mobility flow slides and fluvial erosion resulted in the final
landscape
• Knickpoints / sharp changes in channel slopes were created that resulted in headward
gully migration.

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FUNDAO DAM FAILURE, BRAZIL

Causes for the breach

• Considering the technical analyses, the expert’s report, which is part of the
investigation conducted by the Civil Police of the State of Minas Gerais, concluded that
the cause of the Fundão Dam breach was liquefaction*, which occurred initially near
the sandy tailings that supported the raisings** built on the left side of the dam, on the
site where the axis was retreated. Seven factors contributed to the process of
liquefaction.

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 GERMANO OPERATION, FUNDAO DAM FAILURE - BRAZIL

Original Design Intent Actual Dam Condition

Sand tailings only within the dam Zones of slimes tailings within the dam
Very low line of porewater saturation Very high level of porewater saturation
Immune from liquefaction failure Extreme vulnerability to liquefaction failure 15
FUNDAO DAM FAILURE, BRAZIL

Causes for the breach

• Considering the technical analyses, the expert’s report, which is part of the
investigation conducted by the Civil Police of the State of Minas Gerais, concluded that
the cause of the Fundão Dam breach was liquefaction*, which occurred initially near
the sandy tailings that supported the raisings** built on the left side of the dam, on the
site where the axis was retreated. Seven factors contributed to the process of
liquefaction.

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FUNDAO DAM FAILURE, BRAZIL

1. High saturation of sandy tailings deposited in the Fundão Dam, not only those
deposited under the retreat of the axis of the dam, whose water level inside reached
an approximate 878 m (according to the reading on the piezometers indicated by
consultant), but also the sandy tailings deposited in the remainder of the dam, by
virtue of the subterraneous flow of water and of the contributions from surrounding
fountains.
2. Failures in the continuous monitoring of water level and pore pressures in the area of
the sandy tailings deposited inside the dam and of the tailings that composed the
raising dikes.

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FUNDAO DAM FAILURE, BRAZIL

3. Various monitoring equipment items were faulty, whereby the respective readings had
not been performed also by last consultant personnel, when the dam’s safety report
was issued.
4. Inefficient monitoring because of the reduced number of equipment items installed in
the dam. Some regions in the raisings were uncovered, in terms of number of
piezometers and water level meters in place.

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FUNDAO DAM FAILURE, BRAZIL

5. High annual raising rates for the dam, because of the high level of mud deposited
inside (some 20m high per year, in average). It is common knowledge that any tailings
dam raising must accompany the heightened level of the lake thus formed. In the past
two years, raisings were performed at a much higher yearly rate than that which is
recommended in the technical literature, which is 10m high at the most.
6. Silting of dike 02, which allowed for generalized water infiltration into the area
comprehended by the sandy tailings, on the right side of the tailings deposition pool.
7. Faulty internal drainage system in the dam, whose drained water volumes, according
to the monitoring results presented by Samarco for the months of September and
October 2015, were similar and even lesser than results obtained in 2014.

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FUNDAO DAM FAILURE, BRAZIL

https://www.geplus.co.uk/features/technical-note-fundao-mine-tailings-dam-failure-12-02-2020/

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FUNDAO DAM FAILURE, BRAZIL

https://www.geplus.co.uk/features/technical-note-fundao-mine-tailings-dam-
failure-12-02-2020/

Some conclusions from the article by James Hopkins and Karl Snelling, GDS
Instruments (2020):
Loose, uncompacted sands became susceptible to liquefaction through being
saturated, which occurred due to inadequate drainage conditions. This issue is
unlikely to have arisen had the original high-capacity drainage system
remained operative throughout dam operation.

A lateral extrusion mechanism was able to develop because the abutment was
realigned upstream and subsequently constructed above slimes-rich deposits.
This realignment is unlikely to have been required had the underlying concrete
gallery not experienced structural failure, and significant slimes-rich deposits
are unlikely to have been present at the realigned abutment location had the
200m design beach width been maintained throughout tailings deposition. 21
Tailings storage facility water balance

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TAILINGS STORAGE FACILITIES WATER BALANCES

Why do a water balance?

• Estimate water requirements
• Estimate pond sizes
• Estimate freeboard requirements / design of facility

In addition: excess water management:

• Leads to operational inefficiencies, loss of mining days, potential uncontrolled discharges and
increased operating costs
• Regulatory and reputational risks
• Risk management due to excess water management – intense and costly
Water quality control
• Inadequate management leads to increased operating and closure costs; water re-use opportunities may be
compromised; reduced recoveries; regulatory and reputational risks and pollution impacts
Monitoring and Improvement
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• Continual improvement and efficiencies – aim to be the best! Report accurately on water usage and storage
TAILINGS STORAGE FACILITIES WATER BALANCES

Basic equation:

Change in storage:
ΔS = Inflows – Outflows (“losses”)

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TAILINGS STORAGE FACILITIES WATER BALANCES
Basic equation:
Change in storage:
ΔS = Inflows – outflows (“losses”)
• Inflows and outflows are site and facility specific
• “Inflows” can be climatic or otherwise, e.g.
• Contaminated groundwater pumped into a lined tailings impoundment
“Outflows” refer to all losses, e.g.
• Water used for ore wetting in heap leaching
• Water entrained in tailings upon deposition
• Water losses through seepage, evaporation, etc…
• Water returned to the plant or elsewhere to be used on mine site or off site
• Site wide water balance is best compiled after completing the water balances for
specific facilities 25
TAILINGS STORAGE FACILITIES WATER BALANCES
Basic equation:
Change in storage:
ΔS = Inflows – outflows (“losses”)

• Climatic data are usually available on a monthly basis, e.g. precipitation, evaporation
• Water balance calculations to estimate fresh water needs and maximum pond storage
requirements can be done on a monthly basis
• Operational water balance calculations should be done on a daily basis

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TAILINGS STORAGE FACILITIES WATER BALANCES
Climatic data (typical):

Precipitation
• Average monthly
• Daily
• Extreme events (return period, expression of risk)
• Precipitation
• Snow pack
Evaporation
• Monthly Class A Pan evaporation

Other data:
• Wind speed and direction, solar radiation,
temperature, atm. pressure 27
TAILINGS STORAGE FACILITY WATER BALANCE

Inflow:
• Tailings slurry water
• Precipitation on tailings surface
• Surface water inflows (area inside the diversions ditches)

Outflow (“losses”):
• Evaporation from pool and beach
• Entrainment in the deposited tailings
• Mill return
• Seepage losses
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TAILINGS STORAGE FACILITY WATER BALANCE
DEFINITION OF INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS
Precipitation
• Average or extreme event precipitation
• When analysis interval is monthly then it is assumed that the all precipitation on the tailings
impoundment will report to the pool
• When analysis interval is daily then an alternative analysis may be necessary
Evaporation
• Pan evaporation data are usually available
• 80% of pan evaporation may be acceptable for pool
• Evaporation from beach dependent on cycling of deposition, PSDs, fines content, wind, etc.
• Maybe 0.8 of pan for depositional area, 0.4 of pan for “drying” beach and 0.2 of pan for “dry”
beach
• Difficult to estimate
Seepage
• Perform detailed analyses 29

• Measurements at the toe of the dam, collected in trenches and measured (weirs, etc)
TAILINGS STORAGE FACILITY WATER BALANCE
DEFINITION OF INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS
Slurry:
• Percent solids, s% = W s / (W s + W w) x 100 {i.e. (weight of solids)/(weight of solids plus weight of water) x 100}
• Typical values maybe 25% to less than 60%, dependent on the dewatering process (if any)

Entrainment:
• Assume saturation; calculate void ratio from dry density (γd ) of tailings (typical values of deposited tailings dry
density are 1,150 to 1,350 kg/m3 :
γd = Gsγw/(1 + e)
Where:
Gs = specific gravity of solids, typically about 2.65 for silica
γw = unit weight of water = 1,000 kg/m3
e = voids ratio

• Assume material is saturated, i.e. S = 1 and calculate gravimetric water content, w from:
Se = wGs
Note that w (%) = W w / W s (i.e. weight of water divided by weight of solids)

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TAILINGS STORAGE FACILITY WATER BALANCE
DEFINITION OF INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS
Additional considerations:
• Typical beach slope is about 0.5% to 1% (maybe 2% in special situations, or site conditions – very
seldom), depending on tailings particle size distribution, deposition methods, dewatering technologies,
additives, solids particle shape, deposition rates, etc.
• Much less water is used if the tailings are deposited at a higher solids content.
• Extreme climatic events: Precipitation
• Rainfall: depends on the classification of the structure, temporary vs. permanent, from 1:50,
24 hr event to 1:10,000 year, 72 hours (or more) event; can also be other combinations of
storms based on local experience, including the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP)
• Snowpack, could be 1:10 / 20 / 100 years
• Tailings dewatering improves water management overall at the TSF and water efficiencies, generally
maintains smaller supernatant ponds, less entrained water, and risk management from poor water
management is generally lower.
• Less water in the TSF is a good idea! Use water storage dams or return water dams for water storage! 31
MINE – WIDE WATER MANAGEMENT AND WATER BALANCE

Various locations of water uses and production (typical):

• Water use:
 Drinking water
 Toilets/showers
 Truck wash
 Laboratory
 Air-conditioning/cooling
 Seals/leaks from infrastructure
 Dust control
 Mine property/grounds/clean-up
• Water production:
 Dewatering
 Surface water collection 32
TAILINGS MANAGEMENT METHOD AND WATER USAGE

• Always site specific (ore type, mineralogy, geochemistry, process type, etc)
• Always including the operational requirements!
• Always considering local climatic conditions, topography, internal and external
stakeholders' engagement, catchment basin requirements, etc!
• Always design dewatering technologies based on site specifics, trade-off studies, and
optimization studies!

• Typical published values for water usage (these are approximate ranges):
• Slurry tailings – 0.66 to 0.76 m3/tonne or higher
• Paste tailings – 0.59 m3/tonne (0.50 to 0.62 m3/tonne)
• Filtered tailings – 0.31 m3/tonne (0.3 to 0.38 m3/tonne)
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SPREADSHEET APPROACH – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
• Present all your input parameters on top of sheet (or in a separate sheet/tab)
• Column headers of your spreadsheet (all calculated parameters in cubic meters !!!):
 Year (for the whole operating life) 1 through N-years
 Month (name and no. of days per month – 2 columns)
 Inflows:
• Precipitation (in mm, and in total volume on the TSF)
• Slurry (water in the tailings slurry)
• Runoff?
• Cumulative inflows

 Outflows:
• Evaporation (in mm and total volume on the TSF)
• Entrainment
• Seepage?
• Cumulative outflows
• Change in Storage = Cumulative Inflows – Cumulative Outflows (calculated monthly)
• Cumulative Storage (monthly)

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SPREADSHEET APPROACH – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
• Total mill water required (see water in tailings slurry)
• Minimum water required in the TSF at all times (generally fixed)
• Mill return – Maximum water available in the TSF
• Remaining Storage after mill return (maintain a minimum volume of water and remember to accumulate for surplus
months)
• Extreme event (if any)
• Pond volume including the extreme event (if any)
• Checking freeboard (if and as required)

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EXERCISE 1

Consider a gold tailings impoundment containing cyanide water in mountainous terrain.

The precipitation is mostly in the form of thunderstorms. The design for the operating life
must include as a first defense one of the following options:
1. Diversion channels around the facility
2. Spillway to discharge excess tailings water
3. Water treatment plant
4. Wetlands

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EXERCISE 1

SOLUTION:

Correct answer is 1. Diversion channels around the facility.

• Diversion channels are important to divert the clean water. The basic philosophy is
to keep clean and dirty water separate. It is doubtful that direct discharge will be
allowed and a water treatment plant will add significant cost. The volumes of water
maybe too high for wetland treatment. Low temperatures in high mountain regions
will also limit the opportunities for quality wetlands.

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EXERCISE 2

Tailings slurry is deposited at 45 percent solids at 20,000 tpd. Approximately how much
water is deposited per day?
1. 2,500 m3
2. 25,000 m3
3. 75,000 m3
4. 7,500 m3

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EXERCISE 2

SOLUTION:

% solids = Ws/(Ww + Ws)

0.45Ww + 0.45Ws = Ws
0.45Ww = 0.55Ws
Ww = (0.55/0.45) x 20,000 tones = 24,444 tones

Density of water is 1 tone/m3 Volume of water per day = 24,444 m3

Correct answer is #2. 25,000 m3

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EXERCISE 3

Tailings deposited at 20,000 tpd in the TSF, settle to 1,200 kg/m3 dry density;
approximately how much water is entrained per day?
1. 75 m3
2. 3,900 m3
3. 9,100 m3
4. 8,000,000 m3
Note that dry density can be calculated from the formula: ρd = (Gs*ρw) / (1 + e)
Where:
Gs = specific gravity of solids, typically about 2.65 for silica
ρw = density of water = 1,000 kg/m3
e – void ratio
Degree of saturation, S, can be calculated from:
Se = wGs
Where: w = gravimetric water content
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EXERCISE 3

SOLUTION:

1,200 = (2.65*1,000)/(1 + e)
1+e = 2.2083
e = 1.2083
S=1
w = e/Gs = 1.2083/2.65 = 0.456
w = Ww/Ws
Ww = w * Ws = 0.456 * (20,000tpd) = 9,120 tpd
Volume of water entrained per day = 9,120 m3

Correct answer is #3. 9,100 m3

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EXERCISE 4

The precipitation during the month of June is 90 mm and the pond evaporation is 180 mm.
The area of the supernatant pond on the TSF is 20 hectares and the total area of the TSF
is 160 hectares. Using the information in Exercises 3 and 4, estimate the amount of ΔS for
June. Assume that there are no other inflows or outflows and that the seepage losses are
negligible. What is the approximate value of the change in storage ΔS:
1. 6,050,000 m3
2. 6,500 m3
3. 585,000 m3
4. -120,000 m3

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EXERCISE 4

SOLUTION:

ΔS = P + Slurry – E – Entrainment
P = Precipitation; assume over the entire area of the TSF of 160 ha
E = Evaporation is over the pond area = 20 hectares
P = 160*(10,000) (90/1,000) = 144,000 m3
E = 20*(10,000) (180/1,000) = 36,000 m3

ΔS = 144,000 + 25,000*(30) – 36,000 – 9,100 (30) = 585,000 m3

Correct answer is #3.

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EXERCISE 5

Under the conditions in exercises 2, 3 and 4 above, what is the maximum percentage of
water that can be returned to the mill if precipitation inflow and evaporation losses are
equal?
1. 16 percent
2. 100 percent
3. 75 percent
4. 64 percent

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EXERCISE 5

SOLUTION:

ΔS = P + Slurry – E – Entrainment
P=E
Then
(Slurry – Entrainment)/Slurry = (25,000 – 9,100)/25,000 * 100 = 63.6 percent

Correct answer is #4. 64%

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REQUIRED COURSE MATERIAL

• Lecture video and notes

• SME (2020): Chapter 29: Water Balance
• Vick (1990): Chapter 4: Control of Water in Surface Impoundments
• Check again the Tailings phase relationships in Vick’s book (pages 12 to 15)

• Additional references
• To be placed under the Week 5 module on Canvas

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