Abstract
Major gaps currently exist in characterizing the potential value contained within tailings in Canada. Standardized and innovative solutions are required to inventory and assess the state of domestic mine tailings; to identify the potential value of Canadian tailings; encourage full use mining; assess risk, liability, and mitigate hazards; and to inform in policy development in the evaluation and mining of tailings as a secondary resource of critical minerals in Canada.
CanmetMINING has undertaken work to advance understanding of Canadian mine tailings. This project envelops several key development and knowledge building pieces: 1. Sourcing and creating a comprehensive Canadian mine tailings inventory and building it into a queryable database; whilst simultaneously using this database to inform on potential secondary sources of critical minerals in Canada; 2. Developing a preliminary Tailings Sampling Protocol, to help assess whether the current industry accepted standards of disclosure for mineral projects set in NI 43-101 are sufficient for defining mineral potential in mine tailings as a resource; 3. A field program to test the Tailings Sampling Protocol and proposed methodologies on an abandoned tailings site as a use case; 4. Using satellite imagery and spectral signatures to help identify additional mineral potential in tailings; and 4. Developing a framework of considerations when looking at the carbon intensity of secondary sources.
Each of these project subsets will combine to offer a greater understanding of how to assess the risk versus benefit of mine tailings as a secondary resource, and are vital to defining the critical mineral supply chain in Canada; in promoting liability offset as an economic driver for tailings reprocessing; and to encourage full use mining principles in Canada.