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Water Cover Technology for Reactive Tailings Management: A Case Study of Field Measurement and Model Predictions

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Abstract

Environmentally safe disposal of sulfide-rich reactive mine tailings is one of the major challenges facing the mining industry in Canada, Scandinavia, USA, and many other parts of the world. Placing tailings under a water cover is one of the effective methods to reduce the influx of oxygen to the tailings. Wind-induced turbulence and subsequent resuspension of the tailings, however, are major concerns with this approach. In this paper, a study of wind-induced resuspension at the Shebandowan tailings storage facility, northwestern Ontario, Canada, is discussed. The study compares computer modeling of required water cover depths and resuspended tailings concentrations to observed field data. The calculated minimum water cover depths required to eliminate resuspension were found to be higher than the existing implemented water cover depths in each cell. The predicted resuspended tailings concentrations for the west cell were 6–22 mg/l with an average value of 15 mg/l and, for the east cell, 1–10 mg/l, with an average of 6.0 mg/l. In comparison, optical backscatter sensors, deployed in situ, recorded average resuspended tailings concentration up to 25 mg/l, indicating that the model results were similar to the field-measured values. Results from sediment trap measurements did not show any correlation between the amount of resuspended tailings and water cover depth. Sediment traps collect not only sediments eroded and suspended at the location of deployment but also those that have been transported from elsewhere and redeposited at the trap location. The amount of resuspension occurring at Shebandowan does not raise a major concern because discharge from the tailings area is collected and managed before it reports to the final effluent.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for the research was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and ValeInco Limited through a Collaborative Research and Development Grant awarded to E.K. Yanful.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geotechnical Research Center, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 5B9, Canada

    Laxmi Kant Kachhwal & Ernest K. Yanful

  2. Decommissioning Department, General Engineering Building, ValeInco Limited, Copper Cliff, Ontario, P0M 1N0, Canada

    Lisa Lanteigne

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  1. Laxmi Kant Kachhwal
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  2. Ernest K. Yanful
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  3. Lisa Lanteigne
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Correspondence to Laxmi Kant Kachhwal.

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Kachhwal, L.K., Yanful, E.K. & Lanteigne, L. Water Cover Technology for Reactive Tailings Management: A Case Study of Field Measurement and Model Predictions. Water Air Soil Pollut 214, 357–382 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-010-0429-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-010-0429-6

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