NOVEMBER 6, 2022
Tailings and Mine Waste 2022 will be offering 4 short courses on Sunday, November 6, 2022. Each one promises to be an interactive and informative experience. Learn more about various topics such as tailings systems, risk assessments, design and more!
Registration is open!
Note: If you have already registered for the conference and you would like to add a Short Course to your current registration, please email Conference & Event Services at ces_conferences@mail.colostate.edu with your First and Last Name and Name of Short Course. Conference & Event Services will email you a confirmation it has been added and instructions on how to pay.
Cost Effective Filtered Tailings Systems – Just a (no) pipe dream?
Full day short course, led by Joe Scalia
Overview:
While filtered tailings comply with the spirit and objectives of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, the approach is generally viewed as expensive and may not be seriously investigated for some projects. This is compounded by inconsistent understanding of moisture content and construction requirements for a filtered tailings stack. This short course will provide the considerations for implementing cost effective filtered tailings systems. Topics covered will include tailings dewatering, transport, stacking, (short and long term) geotechnical stability, (short and long term) geochemical stability, and closure. Emphasis will be placed on the interconnected nature of filtered tailings systems. Course goal is to move filtered tailings forward through.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand basics of filtered tailings process, transport, stacking, geotechnical stability, geochemical stability, and closure;
- Analyze how decisions impact across filtered tailings systems;
- Understand lessons learned on proposing, and moving forward, with a filtered tailings system; and
- Examine the feasibility of a filtered tailings system.
State of Practice of Risk Assessment for Tailings Dams – Part 1
Full day course, led by co-chairs: Andy Small, KCB, Jiri Herza, Czech Technical University, and Colleen Crystal, SRK
Overview:
This workshop will explore the current State of Practice of Risk Assessment for the tailings dams to adhere to the GISTM, national and international guidelines, and the duty of care to operate. The workshop will provide clarity of the different, often confusing terminologies and will suggest a consistent terminology for risk assessment of tailings dams. Risk assessment techniques used by the tailings dam industry and by the other high risk industries will be discussed to explore whether or not, and to what extent, these techniques meet various risk assessment objectives.
The evaluation of what is reasonably practicable, including the legal underpinnings, and the integration of the risk assessment into tailings management systems will be addressed. International specialists in risk assessment will be invited to share their perspectives on risk assessment frameworks and lessons learned in other industries with a mature risk assessment and management practice. There is much that can be discussed with respect to risk assessment, hence the planning committee are referring to this workshop as Part 1 that will set the framework. Subsequent workshops will be held that provide further details and examples of risk assessment.
Modeling Aspects of Tailings Facility Design – Prediction of Storage Capacity
Full day course, led by Gordan Gjerapic
Overview:
The goal of the course is to present the current state of practice for sedimentation, consolidation and desiccation analyses with an emphasis on predicting tailings settlements, an essential component for the successful Tailings Disposal Facility (TDF) design. The course will also provide information on the impacts of consolidation processes to the TDF stability design, including evaluation of the liquefaction potential. The theoretical framework for the analyses will be covered at a basic level including conventional consolidation approach, as well as the more advanced concepts based on material coordinates in order to provide practitioners with tools to perform different types of settlement analyses.
The course will cover both the experimental and analytical procedures used for testing of tailings materials in order to obtain relevant material characteristics for numerical modeling. Participants will be provided with simple spreadsheet based algorithms to solve typical consolidation problems encountered in tailings disposal and closure operations. In addition, participants will be provided with the beta version of a more advanced software for solving one-dimensional and three-dimensional consolidation problems.
Fundamentals and Applications of Slurry Pipeline Flows – Cancelled
1/2 day course, led by Ryan Spelay and Reza Hashemi
Overview:
Slurry pipeline transportation is an area that has wide reaching applications in the mining and mineral processing industry. Managers and engineers in all aspects of the process can be involved with slurry pipeline design, operation or troubleshooting. The course will cover a broad range of topics. Starting with a uniform technical language and approach to slurry flow analysis, participants will learn about the principles governing the pipe flow of slurries and will be introduced to appropriate scale-up methods for the design of fine-particle (homogeneous) and coarse-particle (settling) slurry pipelines. Methodologies to deal with the unique challenges of clays and fine particles in tailings will be provided. This course is designed to offer a comprehensive overview of the key considerations for, and unique challenges encountered in the design, implementation and operation of slurry pipeline systems.
Key Learnings:
- Slurry background and classification;
- Slurry behaviour: Newtonian and non-Newtonian rheology;
- Key parameters in slurry pipeline design: friction losses and minimum operating velocity;
- Introduction to the SRC pipe flow models for slurry pipe flow calculations; and
- Slurry pipeline instrumentation, practical examples and case studies to illustrate key concepts
Tailings Dam 2D Flood Routing Workshop
Full day course, led by Jim O’Brien, Ph.D., P.E., Noemi Gonzalez Ramirez, Ph.D., P.E. Developers of the FLO-2D model with the Tailings Dam Breach Tool
Overview:
Assessing mudflow hazard from a tailing dam breach with a 2-D flood routing model is the industry standard but the uncertainty of the sediment modeling is the primary limitation in the accurate prediction of a downstream flood hazard assessment. A two-phase flow modeling component have been developed in the FLO-2D model. The new 2-phase hyperconcentrated sediment flow component simulates a tailing dam breach with reservoir water storage and predicts both the downstream fluid and mudflow inundation. When a tailings dam with water storage fails, initially there is a distinct fluid floodwave that propagates downstream as the water flow moves overtop the tailings in the reservoir. The fluid phase scours the tailings surface as the mudflow mobilizes through the breach. Over a relatively short distance, the fluid and mudflow phases mix and become a mud flood with some mudflow cessation deposits downstream of the breach. The fluid phase continues in advance of the slower mudflow phase and may initially scour, then deposit on the downstream bed.
The FLO-2D model is applied worldwide to simulate tailings dam breach failures. This 4-hour workshop will describe these physical processes in detail and will focus on the creation of a tailing dam breach project using the two-phase component. The workshop will include a theoretical presentation (1.5 hrs.) and a hands-on project (2.5 hrs.). The practical lesson will show how to simulate a tailings dam breach failure and route the breach hydrograph as two-phase fluid flow (water and mudflow) downstream and delineate the hazard mudflow inundation. A new GUI for tailings dam breach studies supported by robust pre- and post-processor tools in the QGIS geographic information software will be used. This 2-phase modeling approach represents a new level of predictive analysis for tailings dam breach and mudflows. The workshop includes a 3-month license for the full version of the FLO-2D model.