Resume/ Abstract:

Mines continue to increasingly produce wastes in terms of tailings and waste rocks that need to be properly disposed of on the surface. After the catastrophic tailings dam failure in Merriespruit, South Africa, in 1994, tailings storage facilities have been qualified as time bombs. Large efforts have been made and significant improvements have been achieved in understanding the mechanisms of failure. Nevertheless, tailings dam failures continue to occur, even after the remarkable case of Brumadinho tailings dam in 2019. The situation can become increasingly serious with the increase in number of mines and tailings dams, along with more and more pronounced climate change. Mining industry needs a remarkable change to slow down or avoid the construction of new tailings dams. To this end, the total co-disposal of tailings and waste rocks as an integral structure is particularly promising. Waste rocks are well known as a good building material for their high mechanical strength and high hydraulic conductivity. They can help accelerating drainage and consolidation of tailings. The consolidated tailings along with the strong waste rocks enhance the stability of integral structure. In case of failure, tailings and waste rocks could mix and avoid mud flooding, as long as the integral structure is properly designed. This requires however a good understanding of the flow behavior of tailings and waste rocks. In this paper, a part of the experimental results obtained by flume tests with tailings and waste rocks will be presented and discussed.

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Lina Hajji