Project title: Tailings Dam Management
Industry partner: Mandalay Resources operates a gold and antimony mine located in Costerfield, Central Victoria. The operation is spread across two sites. Augusta is the underground site and the processing plant is named Brunswick. The mine’s final product is a concentrate containing approximately 50% antimony and 80 grams per tonne gold. The concentrate is sent to China for processing where the antimony is ultimately used as a fire retardant in plastics and other synthetic materials. Historically antimony was mainly used as an alloying element in the production of munitions. There is currently a workforce of approximately 200 people engaged at the Costerfield mine site. An exploration team is currently working to secure the future of mining at Costerfield.
Project aim: The management of tailings is crucial in any mining operation. Tailings storage uses a large footprint and is expensive to manage. Is there another way to manage tailings other than as a waste?
- Tailing dams sediment, are there reuse options for example additions to cement, road materials?
- Composition analysis and evaluation of tailing dam materials, model and design new materials
- Can a tailings dam capped site be re-purposed? modelling of site options including potential for solar panel (PV) array?
- Feasibility study and business case to best use tailing dam materials? Find potential industries who will use the sediment as a resource.
IMAGE: Kelly Michals. Caterpillar Elphinstone R1600G LHD. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/7977719765/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Licence.
