What is the difference between tailings and spoils?

Tailings are low grades of mining ore that are disposed of on the land surface and often in mining waste ponds(1). Because they are unlined, these ponds can be a source of acids or metals, which are carried in run-off or leachate. Spoil consists of mining debris and waste.

What is a tailing impoundment?

If the ore used by a mine is high-grade material, then the operator may choose to process it in tanks for better recovery of metals rather than using a heap leach process. The ore is finely crushed and the metals are extracted from a slurry made of crushed rock, chemicals and water.

What are slags and tailings?

As nouns the difference between slag and tailings is that slag is whipped cream or slag can be apoplexy while tailings is the waste that remains after the minerals have been extracted from an ore by ore dressing; gangue, slimes.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Biomining?

In contrast, biomining uses little energy and produces few microbial by-products such as organic acids and gases. Because it’s cheap and simple, biomining can effectively exploit low grade sources of metals (such as mine tailings) that would otherwise be uneconomical using traditional methods.

What do tailings contain?

Tailings are the waste materials left after the target mineral is extracted from ore….They consist of:

• Crushed rock.
• Water.
• Trace quantities of metals such as copper, mercury, cadmium, zinc, etc.
• Additives used in processing, such as petroleum byproducts, sulfuric acid and cyanide.

What is the difference between slag and sludge?

As nouns the difference between slag and sludge is that slag is waste material from a coal mine while sludge is a generic term for solids separated from suspension in a liquid.

What is slag and sludge?

Slag: a product of smelting. A dry product. Sludge: Fine particles produced by mining, smelting, that are transported via water slurry.

Why are mining tailings bad?

Tailings, especially tailing stored in water by tailings dam in ponds, can be dangerous sources of toxic chemicals, such as heavy metals, sulfides and radioactive content. These ponds are also vulnerable to major breaches or leaks from the dams, causing environmental disasters.

Are tailings toxic?

Tailings aren’t “toxic.” They are a natural byproduct to be kept in a lined facility and returned to the pit at closure. All pyritic tailings will be backhauled to the pit for permanent underwater storage. They will present no failure risk and offer no threat to downstream habitat.

Do mining companies reclaim abandoned tailing ponds?

In the past, reclamation of abandoned tailing ponds was seldom practiced by mining companies. At present, however, state laws in most mining states require some form of reclamation once a tailing pond has served its useful life. A number of studies have been conducted to investigate possible commercial uses of mill tailings.

What happens to tailings in a tailing pond?

Tailings disposed of in tailing ponds are generally kept submerged in water and undergo very little oxidation while in this state. As a result, tailing solids do not become subjected to weathering processes until after abandonment of the pond, which allows the pond to drain.

What is the best method of tailing disposal?

Today, the universal disposal method for tailings is the tailing pond. Tailings are slurried with water and pumped to tailing ponds for settling. Frequently, tailings are cyclone-classified before deposition. Coarse sands are used to build-up the tailing dam, while the slimes are deposited inside the pond.

What is the impact of tailings on surrounding soils?

The impact of these tailings on surrounding soils is also of interest; the grain size distribution of tailings includes fine-grained particles which could be transported by the winds or sandstorms occurring from time to time, and contaminate soils in the neighbourhood.