Tailings are waste material left after extracting desired ores from mined ore in processing plants. They contain fine particles of rock, minerals, water, and chemicals. Tailings can be stored in ponds, dams, underground, or treated for safer use. They often contain minerals, arsenic, sulfur, radioactive materials, and heavy metals. The mining industry produces hundreds of thousands of tons of tailings daily, making proper disposal important for environmental and health reasons. Companies are looking for ways to treat waste for mine reclamation projects and vegetation. Overburden, waste rock removed during mining, is sometimes left in landfills.
In the mining industry the term tailings, or tailings, refers to the waste material that remains after most of the desired ores have been extracted from the ore mined in a mine processing plant. Tailings, also sometimes called oozes, slicks, or leachates, usually consist of very fine particles of ground or crushed rock and minerals mixed with water and other chemicals added in the metallurgical ore-extraction processes. This waste material can be handled in different ways, depending on its composition, water content and regulations for extraction in the specific jurisdiction. For example, the material may be mixed with water and pumped into the ocean or streams, stored in specially constructed surface ponds or underground facilities, dried and stored, or treated in a variety of ways to make it safer to use and handle. . Tailings disposal is an important part of any mining operation and this material can cause health and environmental problems if not handled properly.
The tailings often contain some of the same minerals that the ore was mined for, and are sometimes reworked to extract this material. Mining waste also commonly contains arsenic, sulfur, various naturally radioactive materials, and heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium. The additives used during the chemical processing of the ore are also often part of the tailings. This can include oil, grease, cyanide, sulfuric acid and calcium in the form of lime.
A common way to store tailings is in ponds and dams. Coal mining, for example, produces waste material called coal slurry, made up of very fine particles of coal mixed with water, which is often stored in a type of dam called a coal slurry levee. Tailings can also be stored underground, or dewatered and stacked in storage facilities. The often toxic content of the waste makes storage difficult and expensive to maintain, and any leakage or infiltration can cause environmental damage and affect the health of nearby residents.
Worldwide, the mining industry produces hundreds of thousands of tons of tailings every day. Many mining companies are trying to find ways to treat their waste material in a way that doesn’t require expensive long-term storage. Often the goal is to turn waste into a soil-like material that can be used for mine reclamation projects and replanted with vegetation. Other waste material from mine processing includes overburden, which is waste rock that is removed during mining but not processed. Such material is sometimes dumped in a so-called landfill and left in place.
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