December 23, 2020
In 2015, KCB started a multi-year agreement with the Environment Centres of the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) at the University of Queensland to advance our understanding of the long-term behaviour of mine tailings.
Researchers
Dr. Thomas Baumgartl and
Dr. Mansour Edraki will lead the work, which focuses on assessing the impact of repeated wetting-drying cycles on the aging of mine tailings. In finalizing our agreement, Dr. Baumgartl said there is a lack of knowledge on the impact of aging tailings on the water and geochemical balance of tailings storage facilities. He indicated that there is a need for research to quantify the hydrological, geomechanical and geochemical characteristics of mine tailings, while taking into account the influence of tailings consolidation and weathering effects as tailings age. This research will lead to a better understanding of the long-term behaviour of tailings and how industry manages such a crucial part of the mining process through the mine life cycle.
