Some of this waste is inert and unlikely to damage the environment. However, mining waste can also contain large quantities of dangerous substances, such as heavy metals. Extracting and processing metals and metal compounds can result in acid or alkaline drainage.
In addition, tailings management is risky, and often involves residual processing chemicals and elevated levels of metals. Tailings are often stored in heaps or in large ponds surrounded by a dam. These can collapse, with disastrous consequences and a lasting impact on human health, the economy and the environment.
Properly managing mining waste will also ensure the long-term stability of disposal facilities. It will prevent or minimise water and soil pollution arising from acid or alkaline drainage and the leaching of heavy metals.
Mining wastes include waste generated during the extraction, beneficiation
beneficiation
Mineral processing can involve four general types of unit operation: 1) Comminution – particle size reduction; 2) Sizing – separation of particle sizes by screening or classification; 3) Concentration by taking advantage of physical and surface chemical properties; and 4) Dewatering – solid/liquid separation.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Mineral_processing
Tailings are a by-product of mining. After ore containing an economically-recoverable commodity is mined from the earth, that commodity is extracted in a processing plant or mill. After the commodity of value is extracted from the ore material, the resultant waste stream is termed “tailings”.
Waste occurs at several stages of the mining process and throughout all the life of the mine, from exploration (drilling) to mine closure. Several types of waste are generated in a mine, but three types stand out with the largest volume: waste rock, tailings and mine water.
Toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, selenium, and arsenic leach into local water supplies, poisoning drinking water. This destructive practice, known as mountaintop-removal mining, sends carcinogenic toxins like silica into the air, affecting communities for miles around.
Mineral processing wastes are referred to in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) as wastes that are generated during the extraction and beneficiation of ores and minerals. These wastes can be subdivided into a number of categories: waste rock, mill tailings, coal refuse, wash slimes, and spent oil shale.
A spoil tip (also called a boney pile, culm bank, gob pile, waste tip or bing) is a pile built of accumulated spoil – waste material removed during mining.
The Overburden of waste and uneconomic mineralized rock is required to be removed to mine the useful mineral resource in a surface mining operation. In this process a dump is formed by casting the waste material and dumping it in nearby area. The dump so formed is known as mine waste dump.
Coal refuse (also described as coal waste, rock, slag, coal tailings, waste material, rock bank, culm, boney, or gob) is the material left over from coal mining, usually as tailings piles or spoil tips.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory, metal mining is the nation's #1 toxic polluter. Mine waste contains toxic substances like arsenic, mercury, and cadmium that are harmful to public health and fish and wildlife when released into the environment.
Waste rock generally consists of coarse, crushed, or blocky material covering a range of sizes, from very large boulders or blocks to fine sand-size particles and dust. Waste rock is typically removed during mining operations along with overburden and often has little or no practical mineral value.
Tailings are finely ground rocks and other mineral waste as a result of mineral processing. Due to the way minerals are processed, tailings can contain concentrations of processing chemicals. This can make mine tailings an environmental concern, so proper transportation and disposal are crucial.
Mine tailings are the ore waste of mines, and are typically a mud-like material. Worldwide, the storage and handling of tailings is a major environmental issue. Many tailings are toxic and must be kept perpetualy isolated from the environment.
Waste rock refers to the material that is removed from the earth during mining operations but does not contain the mineral or ore of interest. This material is usually set aside in large piles or dumps near the mining site.
Tailings are the left-over materials from the processing of mined ore. They consist of ground rock, unrecoverable and uneconomic metals, chemicals, organic matter and effluent from the process used to extract the desired products from the ore.
Tailings are the left-over materials from the processing of mined ore. They consist of ground rock, unrecoverable and uneconomic metals, chemicals, organic matter and effluent from the process used to extract the desired products from the ore. Tailings are stored in tailings storage facilities (TSFs).
acid mine drainage (the most prevalent; see below), alkaline mine drainage (this typically occurs when calcite or dolomite is present), metal mine drainage (high levels of lead or other metals drain from these abandoned mines).
The fundamental issue involves contamination of nearby rivers, lakes, and aquifers by what comes out of a coal mine—usually highly acidic water containing heavy metals like arsenic, copper, and lead. The process is known as acid mine drainage.
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