Premium: Why dry tailings is important

In this whitepaper ‘Reasons why dry tailings is important’ we will share more information about the important reasons for density measurement in the process of dry stack tailings, and how important it is to maximize the water recovery in the process.

According to CRC Care 2013, every year more than 10 billion tons of tailings are produced by mining activity. Globally, many mining sites struggle due to insufficient amounts of fresh water intake available in their regions; the dewatering process can capture as much as 90 percent of the water for reuse.

Risks of wet tailings

In order to extract valuable minerals, mining companies have to move large amounts of earth. The waste resulting from this process is usually stored in a large pond, as a semi-liquid known as wet tailings. It is expected that these ponds are stable enough to withstand the pressure of the stored material, however, unfortunately, history shows that this is not always the case. Some dam failures in the past years resulted in the loss of many lives and environmental destruction on a large scale.