By: Eng. Juan Rayo Prieto. Technical Manager - JRI Ingenieria.

Abstract

In the mining industry, open pit mining and concentrator plants produce large amounts of waste, which must be collected in dumps (usually close to the mine), and tailings disposal (usually far from the mine).

In many cases, both types of deposit present high contamination and stability risks. Contamination refers to dust removed and transported by wind toward agricultural land or community settlements, and toward the production of acidic water with dissolved metals, affecting rivers or groundwater. There are also risks related to stability failures of tailing dams, as happened in two recent cases in Canada and Brazil.