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Tailings, Heap Leach & Waste Focus

Issue: 
#44
Work by SRK on the Mogalakwena platinum mine included pilot tailings thickening plant and tailings dam upgrades.
The Mogalakwena platinum mine is located approximately 35km to the north west of the town of Mokopane in the Limpopo Province of South Africa and is the only open cast platinum mine within the Anglo American Group. Pilot paste project This project involved establishing, commissioning and operating a pilot scale...
SRK has been responsible for work on tailings operations across Russia and other CIS countries. These have involved complex geotechnical, environmental and permitting issues that had to be overcome to meet international standards.
SRK has a strong track record in assisting clients in Russia and other CIS countries with developing Bankable Feasibility Studies and auditing existing and prospective tailings disposal facilities. A Bankable Feasibility Study refers to the design and costing of a project in accordance with standards accepted by the international financial...
SRK designs innovative thickened tailings storage facility at Esperanza, Chile.
SRK has recently concluded the detail engineering of the Minera Esperanza (ME) tailings storage facility and is currently providing technical supervision for construction. The Esperanza tailings facility is located in northern Chile, in the Atacama Desert and will be the largest thickened tailings facility in the world. Recently, ME was...
SRK controls tailings seepage for remediation at northern gold mine.
The Colomac gold mine, located at 64° latitude in northern Canada, operated intermittently from 1989 to 1997. The main tailings dam (Dam 1) was built in a narrow, flat-bottomed valley at the original, drainage outlet from a natural lake. The dam foundation consisted of glacial soils overlying bedrock in a...
The Geotechnical Group of SRK Chile, has engaged in the work of characterising coarse waste material
The challenge faced by some mines in the Andean mountain range is the lack of available space for waste dumps, given the steepness of the typical mountainous topography. Because of this, there is an even more urgent need to design dumps hundreds of meters high, in some cases reaching unprecedented...
SRK has recently incorporated the GoldSim™ tool as part of the range of services that the tailings and heap leach group offer to our clients. GoldSim™ is a general program that can be used to simulate almost any process, incorporating the probabilistic simulation of complex systems. While applications for this...
SRK geotechnical engineers and geochemists conduct long-term feasibility study of infiltration and water management for Chilean tailings pond.
SRK has successfully conducted a feasibility study of medium and long term solutions to infiltration and water management problems for one tailing storage facility (TSF) located in the central valley of Chile. Monitoring wells in the region identified the problem with this TSF is that sulfate concentration has increased in...
Penstock decant tailings deposition system allows tailings to be stored effectively and safely in smaller land areas.
SRK Johannesburg has again become involved in the design of ring dyke tailings dams to accommodate a fairly large deposition rate. The availability of sufficient land is becoming a problem and is increasing the final heights of the tailings dams. The tailings dams therefore have to be designed to use...
Numerical modelling provides information on mineral paste deposition in southeastern Africa.
SRK used numerical modelling on a 3D MS Excel platform to solve challenges involving the deposit of a heavy minerals thickened paste on natural valley slopes, to determine maximum coverage and hang-up, and evaluate the potential increase or decrease in design target dry densities of the slimes. During heavy minerals...
SRK formulated new design strategies for the Giroux Walsh tailings impoundment in Nevada.
The Giroux Wash tailings impoundment at the Robinson Mine in Nevada receives a nominal 42,000 tons per day of milled, processed sulfide flotation tailings. The facility has a compacted earth starter embankment with the majority of embankment raise construction achieved via the centerline construction method using the coarse fraction of...
Preventing oxidization of copper ore while stockpiling ensures smaller losses at Indonesian mine.
PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara plans to stockpile approximately 500Mt of copper ore for up to 20 years at the Batu Hijau mine on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia. Cu recovery from unoxidised ore is about 85%. It was not clear what the impact of oxidation would be on recovery after ore was...
SRK performed expedited project planning, geotechnical evaluation, water balance analysis, and engineering design to meet tight compliance deadlines. 
When rising groundwater elevations posed a potential risk to the integrity of existing geomembrane pond liners, Barrick Cortez, Inc. (Barrick) retained SRK for engineering modifications to the process ponds. SRK performed expedited project planning, geotechnical evaluation, water balance analysis, and engineering design to meet tight compliance deadlines. Key design elements...
SRK maximises the lifespan of in-pit tailings storage facility and explores design possibilities for new expanded facility.
SRK was commissioned by Focus Minerals Limited to provide professional services associated with their Three Mile Hill in-pit tailings storage facility (TSF) in Western Australia. This facility forms part of the Coolgardie Gold Project and currently receives tailings at a rate of 1.2 Mtpa. Focus requested that SRK undertake an...
SRK provides landfill design and closure services for municipalities, including where precipitation is significant challenge.
Since the late 1990s, SRK Reno has been providing solid waste landfill design and permitting services for small municipalities in Nevada, Utah, and California. Services have included the design and permitting of landfill and transfer stations, preparing and implementing closure plans, the design and installation of landfill gas and groundwater...
Review of old tailings dams reveals lessons learned to prevent similar disrepair.
Recently SRK was requested to review 15 old tailings dams in Zambia and evaluate the work required to close them. These tailings dams are all located in the tropics, in an area with high annual rainfall and with summer thunder showers that cause high-intensity rainfall events. While the tailings deposition...
SRK designs Leakage Collection and Recovery System to prevent tailings leakage.
SRK Reno has designed a “boot” configuration that can be used for pipeline penetrations through a synthetic HDPE geomembrane pond liner; it has been approved via regulatory permitting processes for construction. The boot design, illustrated in the figure below, provides a drainage connection to the low point in a secondary...
SRK designs new tailings management facility for Sabodala Project, Senegal, which also acts as additional water resevoir.
SRK completed the feasibility design of a tailings management facility (TMF) for the Oromin Joint Venture Group at the Sabodala Project in Senegal in 2010. To ensure a consistent water supply to the mine, the TMF facility will be used as a water reservoir during the rainy season to supplement...
Using SRK's flotation tailings process and planning for closure early, overall costs were reduced.
Before a tailings facility can be constructed in Nevada, detailed engineering design must be approved at state level, including plans describing process fluid operating protocols and methods and costs for disposing of process fluids and stabilising process materials. A reclamation plan must be prepared and approved by state and government...
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