Mine Waste and Water Management – Future Developments and Trends

Future challenges to the mining industry are many and include increasing requirements from regulatory agencies and communities, more competitive commodity pricing, increasing competition for power and water supplies, deeper mines and increasing number sulfide ore bodies requiring dealing with Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) controls and finally larger mine waste structures increasing consequences of potential failures. In this sense, the paper deals with approaches that can, and have been, used in planning the overall project and tailings facilities locations and layouts. It also discusses approaches used to achieve better planning, by considering an integrated milling, concentration, and tailings process, rather than considering tailings and the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) as an independent entity.