Building better mine waste stockpile design for health, safety and environment (HSE) conditions

During mine closure the costs are higher than expected. Therefore, the waste stockpiles based on the management of acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD) or neutral metalliferous drainage (NMD) throughout the life cycle of mine should be well-designed, which can contain significantly critical raw metals (CRM). The target is as follows:

• minimize the risk of AMD caused by waste stockpiles, which refer to lower grade coarse to fine particles
• benefit from geobody of mine waste stockpiles for the extraction of CRM
• keep surface water and groundwater sources cleaner
• implement low cost mine closure studies
• minimize the potential risk of hazardous disasters as landslide.

Particle size distribution which consists of coarse, medium and fine grains influences the oxygen diffusion and gas transport mechanisms associated water infiltration throughout different particles. These mechanisms related to the physical and hydraulic properties accelerate the acidity which results from sulphate salts and sulfide minerals forming waste stockpiles of various grain sizes. Therefore, waste stockpiles can be designed according to particle size distribution, classified by mineralogical composition of waste stockpiles. After waste stockpiles are constructed in the laboratory scale, field scale methods should be developed in operational mining region.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7172910882190966784