68th Canadian Geotechnical Conference and 7th Canadian Permafrost Conference

THICKENED TAILINGS DEPOSITION MODELING USING A LARGE STRAIN CONSOLIDATION MODEL

Session: Mining Geotechnique I / Géotechnique minière I

Michaël Demers Bonin, Golder Associés Ltée (Canada)
Nuth Mathieu, Université de Sherbrooke (Canada)
Anne-Marie Dagenais, Golder Associés Ltée (Canada)
Alexandre R.Cabral, Université de Sherbrooke (Canada)

The use of thickened tailings (TT) has increased over the last forty years due to the perceived benefits of using this technology for tailings disposal. Observations from self-weight consolidation tests performed in settling columns on gold mine tailings indicated that thickened tailings at higher solids content typically exhibit self-weight consolidation behavior only. Based on this observation, the CS2 code was used to model the experimental consolidation behavior of thickened tailings observed in settling columns. The results from CS2 were conclusive and lead to further modeling tailings deposition on a large scale using the CS4 1D code, which shares the same formulation as CS2 but considers layer accretion, rather than instantaneous filling. The numerical formulation of the two codes accounts for large strain and variable compressibility and hydraulic conductivity during the consolidation process.