TAILING DAM

SEMINAR REPORT

BY

AMIYA DAS

University Registration No-111030110007

University Roll No-10301311006

Submitted in partial fulfilment of

The requirement for the award of Bachelor of Technology in

Civil Engineering

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

HALDIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, HALDIA

APRIL 2014
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my respective
faculties for their exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement for this
technical report.

I am really very grateful to Dr.Bisakha Chakraborty who has helped me to

complete the report. I would also like to thank my classmates to give me ideas for choosing
the points of this report.

---Amiya Das
 ABSTRACT

The technology of tailings dam design is based on the same geotechnical

principles as water dams; however the presence of saturated tailings solids as the stored
medium, versus water only, presents unique challenges and design benefits. The gradation of
mine tailings typically varies from silty medium fine sand to clayey silt. Tailings dam design
sections vary considerably. For example, the dam can be made entirely out of unprocessed
tailings with upstream construction. The contents of the tailings themselves depend on what
mineral is being mined, though the process of creating them is generally similar. More than
half of the material removed from mines is cast away immediately. The ore-containing
material is then processed, means grinding it up to a very small particle size, and then using
some chemical additives to remove the material like copper, zinc, lead, gold etc. The failure
of tailings dam incident occurs each year, although that figure doubled between 1995 to
2001.Most of the failures were a result of issues with water balance, construction and a
general lack of understanding about how the dams work. There were also failures caused by
unpredictable climate and geological events, such as floods and earthquakes.

KEYWORDS

Tailing, spigotting, cycloning, impoundment, piping, retention, upstream,

downstream, overtopping, sliding.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. OVERVIEW OF TAILINGS DISPOSAL . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1

3. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WATER AND TAILING DAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

4. TYPES OF IMPOUNDMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A. Retention embankment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
B. Raised dams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

5. TAILINGS IMPOUNDMENT DESIGN . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

6. DESIGN VARIABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
A. Tailings-Specific Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
B. Site-Specific Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
C. Seismicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

7. EMBANKMENT CONSTRUCTION AND FAILURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

A. Embankment construction
I. Upstream Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
II. Downstream Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
III. Centerline Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
B. Failure Modes . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

8. CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

9. REFERENCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12