Designing and commissioning a future-proof tailings management system requires a totally new mindset. As a baseline, it should enable the mines to process their tailings in the most sustainable manner possible and as economically as possible. So far, tailings processing has been considered a cost – but what if you could benefit commercially from it?
In 2018, less than 5% of all tailings were dewatered in one way or another. This is an alarmingly low figure. Considering the recent dam failures and the increasing global need to use water more responsibly, and the prerequisite for the mines to keep their costs in control, we need a completely new agenda for tailings management.
Metso has
launched a new tailings management concept catering to these needs. It
offers miners a sustainable way to handle tailings and a new value-creation
model through the easy reprocessing of tailings.
Metso sees dry stacking of tailings as the most promising and sustainable way
forward. At the same time, the mining community needs to challenge its current
way of thinking and include the reprocessing of tailings as part of the overall
solution. Extracting valuable minerals from the tailings and legacy dams is
both responsible and a good opportunity to convert waste into value. The
remaining dry waste can be used as backfill material in the mines.
As Metso sees it, tailings management is not a matter of finding the most technically suitable equipment or solution; it is about transformation and taking the end-of-mine strategy to a new level.
Read the rest of the article on metso.com: A new value-creation model for tailings management
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