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The Critical Factors and Preventive Measures of Impoundment of Tailings Using Active Surface Subsidence Zones

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Abstract

Impoundments of tailings and active surface subsidence zones induced by ore mining were the major environmental problems. The aim of this study was to investigate the technical feasibility of impoundment of tailings using active surface subsidence zones. The self-designed scaled physical model was conducted to investigate the movement laws of tailings under different heights of granular media and tailings, and then drawing ore in these experiments was performed to simulate the mining process. The experimental results showed that the isolated extraction zone and stoping sequence had a primary influence on the doping process of tailings. Besides, when the height of granular media was more than that of the isolated movement zone, the uniform mode of drawing ore could be decreased the amounts of tailings drawn from drawpoints. Meanwhile, the doping process was not impacted by continuously emission of tailings to active surface subsidence zones. Thus, the field test was employed in the Dabeishan Iron Mine and the mining schemes were put forward based on the experimental data. The results showed that the recovery ratio and dilution ratio were 80.9% and 24.3% respectively, and that the scheme established in this paper could be used in practice.

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Data Availability

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51534003), the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2016YFC0801601), Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia (No. 2021LHBS05004). Autonomous Region. The authors would also like to acknowledge the reviewers for their professional comments and constructive suggestions regarding improvements of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Mining Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China

    Yang Liu

  2. School of Resources and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China

    Yanjun Zhou, Rongxing He, Jianli Cao & Fengyu Ren

  3. Liaoning Shihua University, Fuxin, China

    Fu Yu

  4. Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Survey and Map Institude, Baotou, China

    Lu Yue

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  1. Yang Liu
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  2. Yanjun Zhou
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  3. Rongxing He
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  4. Jianli Cao
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  5. Fengyu Ren
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  6. Fu Yu
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  7. Lu Yue
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Correspondence to Yanjun Zhou.

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Liu, Y., Zhou, Y., He, R. et al. The Critical Factors and Preventive Measures of Impoundment of Tailings Using Active Surface Subsidence Zones. Geotech Geol Eng 41, 271–282 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-022-02278-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-022-02278-4

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