An alternative solution to tailings storage facilities for mining companies.
I recently presented “The future of mining with zero mine waste” to the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

The key theme discussed is that a near zero mine waste solution is possible by repurposing tailings and waste rock into a resource. This can generate an income large enough to cover the cost of eliminating the tailings from the mine site.

The challenges, solutions, and benefits to the mining industry and communities were covered in more depth in our whitepaper completed by the Circular Mine Consortium for the Institute.

This highlighted the technology to repurpose most of the tailings is already available, and many research initiatives are emerging across the globe. The volume of tailings produced every year is gigantic and heterogeneous. It’s a global challenge for the mining industry to target an ambitious zero mine waste goal which will require significant technical and commercial expertise. A global collaborative approach is required to achieve a successful result.

Despite the urgency of this matter, progress is still slow, and there is still a need to crack the varnish and reach the core of the problem. This requires many components and stakeholders such as engineering, legislation, financial, investors, education, and governments to help the mining community make this a permanent transition for projects of all sizes in different locations.

We have recently formed The Circular Mine Consortium with leading European recycling and Australian mining organizations to combine recycling and mining expertise to offer practical steps toward zero mine waste. The consortium applies the concepts described in the paper. We have recently participated in a few international initiatives and have seen many innovative ways to change the waste management approach in the mining industry.

#mining #future #tailingsmanagement #sustainability #zerowaste