Toward sustainable reprocessing and valorization of sulfidic copper …
Future copper needs and hence, mining activities will determine the future availability of copper tailings and reprocessing potential. Three scenarios for 2050 are explored based on projected, prospective dynamic material flow analysis linked with resource scenarios of the previous studies by Ciacci et al. (2020) and Elshkaki et al. …
Mine tailings: reprocess, recover & recycle
Say a copper mine produced 1Mt of metal in 1999 at 90% recovery. The remaining 10% of copper, around 111kt, went to tailings. If the average copper price in 1999 was US$1,500/tonne then that 10% represented US$166.5 million of metal. Fast forward 20 years and at today's price, US$5,842/tonne, if that material could be …
Production of eco-friendly bricks from copper mine tailings …
For the copper mine tailings studied in this paper, the optimum curing temperature is around 90 °C. e) By selecting appropriate preparation conditions (NaOH concentration, initial water content, forming pressure, and curing temperature), eco-friendly geopolymer bricks can be produced from the copper mine tailings to meet the ASTM …
Underestimated environmental benefits of tailings resource …
Tongling City generates about 7 million tons of copper tailings per year, mainly utilized to fill mining pits and manufacture building materials, with a utilization rate of about 80%. As shown in Fig. 3, filling the mining pits is the most important way to reuse the tailings in Tongling City.
Biodiversity conservation threatened by global mining wastes
For copper, which makes up 46% of the global tailings volume, the total amount of tailings and waste rock predicted over 2020–2050 is 858 Gt (ref. 37). Further, due to the decrease in lithium ...
Underestimated environmental benefits of tailings resource …
Tongling City generates about 7 million tons of copper tailings per year, mainly utilized to fill mining pits and manufacture building materials, with a utilization rate of about 80%. As shown in Fig. 3, filling the mining pits is the most important way to reuse the tailings in Tongling City. The mining pits are filled by adding cementing ...
The chemistry and toxicity of discharge waters from copper mine …
Copper mining generates large quantities of waste, tailings, and acid outflows causing long-term environmental impacts and potential threats to human health. Valea Şesei is the largest tailing impoundment in Romania, created by flooding the valley (known as Valea Şesei) of the Metalliferous Mountains (a division of the Apuseni …
Copper Tailing
As copper tailings appear in ground form, the grading of copper tailings reported by Gupta and Thomas (2013) and Nitish et al. (2013) has a sizeable silt fraction of 0.06–0.002 mm. Copper tailings are considered to be finer than CS, which usually has a dominant sand fraction. Table 6.5 compares the geotechnical properties of copper tailings to …
Toward sustainable reprocessing and valorization of …
Copper tailings reprocessing can mitigate GHG emissions and toxicity impacts in 2050. •. Tailings reprocessing can supply up to 2 % of future European …
Mining copper tailings could answer supply deficits …
There is an estimated total of 217,330,652,000 m 3 of tailings in storage globally, with copper accounting for about 46% of stored material globally. Copper …
Geochemistry of a copper mine tailings deposit in Repparfjorden
This study investigates copper ore tailings deposited in Repparfjorden, Norway in the 1970's. Bathymetric show that the tailings deposit still occurs as a series of cone-shapes and has retained its original shape for four decades. Analytical data of 51 chemical elements show that some of the tailings are spreading, affecting fjord surface ...
Towards mine tailings valorization: Recovery of critical …
In copper mining, tailings can account for 95–99% of crushed and ground ores (Edraki et al., 2014). Worldwide, mine tailings are produced at a rate of anywhere from five to fourteen billion tons per year (Adiansyah et al., 2015; Edraki et al., 2014; berger, 2016).
Mine tailings-based geopolymers: A comprehensive review
The compressive strength of a copper mine tailings-geopolymer composite activated by sodium hydroxide improved with a boost in forming pressure throughout moulding in the investigation of Ahmari and Zhang [225], but only up to a water content of 12% at the outset, and then the compressive strength dropped with a rise in forming …
Soilless remediation of the fine carbonate‐rich gold‐copper mine tailings
Soil remediation with minimum amendments is a good strategy for tailings disposal. Carbonate-rich gold-copper mine tailings occurring alongside the Yangzi River, China, were employed as the objective in this study. They showed the characteristics of fine particles and alkaline pH with high density and low nutrition.
Electro-remediation of copper mine tailings.
Electro-remediation of copper mine tailings. Comparing copper removal efficiencies for two tailings of different age - ScienceDirect. Minerals Engineering. …
Geosciences | Free Full-Text | Recycling and Reuse …
Mining is an important industry, accounting for 6.9% of global GDP. However, global development promotes accelerated demand, resulting in the accumulation of hazardous waste in land, sea, and air …
Geotechnical Properties of Mine Tailings | Journal of …
Abstract. The engineering properties of tailings are important for the safety evaluation and engineering design of tailing dams. In the present study, laboratory experiments were performed to investigate the geotechnical properties of four different tailings, including two iron tailings (coarse and fine) and two copper tailings (coarse and fine).
A review of circular economy strategies for mine tailings
The mine tailings are also reported to be reused as fine aggregates in concrete to replace natural sand, e.g. by the use of copper tailings (Thomas et al., 2013) and the use of low-sulphide Pb–Zn tailings (Argane et al., 2016).
Arizona toxic releases soar, led by copper mines, smelter, …
In 2018, the mine's releases of toxic materials via tailings and waste rock disposal were, at more than 8 million pounds, more than four times greater than in 2010, EPA's latest TRI report shows.
All of the World's Mine Tailings, in One Visualization
Visualizing the Size of Mine Tailings. On January 25th, 2019, a 10-meter tall wave traveling 120 km/h, washed 10 million m 3 of mining waste from the Brumadinho tailings dam over the Brazilian countryside killing somewhere between 270 and 320 people.. This was a manmade disaster, made from mining the materials we use daily. …
Copper Mining at Chuquicamata
The Chuquicamata mine in northern Chile's Atacama Desert is one of the deepest open-pit mines in the world, second only to Bingham Canyon in Utah. The extraction of huge stores of copper has hollowed out the landscape; the largest pit at the site reaches a depth of approximately 1,000 meters (3,300 feet). Evidence of mining …
Production of eco-friendly bricks from copper mine tailings …
This paper studies the feasibility of utilizing copper mine tailings for production of eco-friendly bricks based on the geopolymerization technology. The procedure for producing the bricks simply includes mixing the tailings with an alkaline solution, forming the brick by compressing the mixture within a mold under a specified pressure, and ...
Retreatability analysis of the Musina copper mine tailings …
Mining the tailings for copper could offer a self-funding option that has the potential to complete proper rehabilitation. The main risk is associated with the possible inhalation or ingestion of dust, and any remediation of the tailings dumps and rock dumps should include stabilising the surface (e.g. by using vegetation).
About – Critical Metals in Copper Mine Tailings
Since every ton of copper produced requires mining and processing roughly 250 tons of rock, the past century of major mining has generated an estimated 17.5 B tons of tailings (i.e., nearly 10 cubic km of finely ground, copper-depleted waste rock), with upwards of …
(PDF) Reuse Potentials of Copper Mine Tailings in Mortar …
Abstract. The disposal of copper mine tailings (CMT) in finite containment facilities near mine sites is a serious human safety and environmental management challenge in most copper-producing ...
Treasure from trash: how mining waste can be mined a …
Published: June 28, 2016 10:29pm EDT. Identifying mine waste materials as economic resources will help support global demand for critical metals, boosting the mining industry during the downturn ...
Environmentally sustainable mining: The case of tailings …
The technical and socio-political causes of mine Tailings Storage Facilities (TSF) disasters are examined. ... The Ok Tedi is an open pit copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea (PNG) developed from the early1980s by a consortium headed by the Australian firm, BHP Billiton. It cost about US$1.4 billion to develop the mine which sits …
Past, Present, and Future of Copper Mine Tailings …
As Table 3 shows, some mining operations have tailings production of more than 100,000 mtpd, led by the Escondida Mine, which is the largest copper mining operation in the world, with an approximate production of 370,000 mtpd of mining tailings. The tailings storage facilities for operations using conventional tailings technology have …
Tailings dam of largest open pit copper mine in Canada is …
On April 8, a line spilled 850,000 litres of process water . Following a spill of 850,000 litres of process water caused by a frozen pipeline at Highland Valley Copper's tailings facility in ...
How to handle mine tailings safely and sustainably?
Driven by mining volumes, globally generated tailings are estimated to total up to 3.2 billion tons for copper and up to 1.8 billion tons for iron per year. Water conservation and the cost of ...