Tailings are currently classified by South African environmental legislation as potentially hazardous waste. When assessed against the legislated Waste Acceptance Criteria, platinum Tailings are often classified as requiring a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) liner as a pollution-control barrier. This relatively new requirement brings environmental benefits, but does complicate the design, construction and operation of a tailings storage facility (tailings dam).
Traditionally, tailings dams in South Africa have been built on top of the in situsoils, which may have acted as a natural drainage medium for the tailings dams. Among the new challenges to be faced in tailing dams design and construction, then, it that all drainage must now be artificially added. Among the stability of the tailings dam needs to be assessed in new ways to consider different possible failure mechanisms, and management of stormwater during construction must be carefully planned.
SRK Contributor:
Linda Spies
