Abstract
Management of mine wastes, particularly waste rock , requires careful planning to reduce the likelihood of sulfide oxidation, and generation of ARD. Such a waste management strategy must be based on a thorough understanding of the environmental characteristics of the future waste rock materials. In this study, a waste management strategy for characterizing underground waste rock was developed at a polymetallic mine to determine which materials were appropriate for surficial placement. The criteria for surficial placement set by the regulator were that materials had to be non-acid forming and non-metalliferous. A range of cost-effective field based tools and state-of-the-art laboratory techniques were used on a suite of representative samples collected from the site to determine an appropriate waste management strategy. Ultimately, a modified geochemistry-mineralogy-texture -geometallurgy (GMTG) approach was designed, whereby ARD focused logging and simple pre-screening tools such as paste pH and sulfur analyses were used at stage-one; routine acid base accounting and leachate tests at stage-two, and validation tools including X-ray diffractometry and laser ablation ICPMS at stage-three. Such an approach should be considered for other mine sites at all life-of-mine stages with similar deposit characteristics to ensure correct screening and placement of potentially hazardous waste materials.
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Parbhakar-Fox, A., Lottermoser, B. (2017). Predictive Waste Classification Using the Geochemistry-Mineralogy-Texture-Geometallurgy (GMTG) Approach at a Polymetallic Mine. In: Lottermoser, B. (eds) Environmental Indicators in Metal Mining. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42731-7_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42731-7_10
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