SoilCyclers: Reducing Waste in the Mining Industry (2024)

By Reginald DaveyReviewed by Laura ThomsonFeb 2 2023

Waste is a critical issue in the mining industry. Reducing the amount of waste generated and reusing it to create value-added products are key focuses in the mining sector. This article will explore SoilCyclers’ solutions for reducing mining waste and improving the industry’s circularity.

Image Credit:ArtbyPixel/Shutterstock.com

Mining Waste: A Critical Issue

Mining waste includes all solid, semisolid, and liquid materials produced during ore extraction and processing. Waste rock, soil, mine water, sludge, mine tailings, gangue, and various processed materials must be disposed of safely and in an environmentally responsible manner.

The amount of waste generated fluctuates each year. The average annual amounts of mining waste are not closely related to the sector’s annual production. One factor that affects the amount of waste generated per year is the chemical composition of extracted ore. Nevertheless, the waste generated by the sector is significant.

Improper waste management and disposal can lead to environmental pollution, affecting vulnerable ecosystems and local populations. Critical issues can occur, such as groundwater contamination and the increased instance of health problems in workers and people living near mines.

Mining waste is not just an issue with active mines. Significant amounts of waste remain in legacy mines which cause environmental issues even decades after mining operations cease. Remediating the environmental damage caused after a mine has closed is expensive and time-consuming.

Current Methods of Managing Mining Waste

Current approaches to managing waste in the mining industry include disposal, overburden management, and recycling. Due to the vast amounts of waste generated globally every year, correct waste management is essential to avoiding key issues such as environmental damage.

Huge amounts of slurry are generated during ore processing and treatment, with free water in this slurry reused in refining and processing plants. Rock waste in the slurry is disposed of in waste piles and tailings dam embankments.

Several methods are used to dispose of tailings. These include pond storage, release into the ocean, dry stacking, and underground storage. Appropriate disposal methods depend on the type of tailings.

Overburden is typically managed by backfilling. This type of mine waste can provide essential nutrients, optimal pH, and good moisture content for new tree growth, which is especially important for environmental remediation in legacy mines.

Recycling mineral and metal waste materials is a growing solution to the environmental issues faced by the modern mining industry. Waste can be reduced by reprocessing to extract additional minerals and using waste for construction purposes in mines.

Mine waste can also be reused in several industries. For instance, in the construction industry, mine waste can be used as aggregates in asphalt or building materials such as concrete. Many studies have demonstrated that mining waste can improve construction materials' mechanical and physical properties.

How SoilCyclers is Helping to Reduce Mining Waste

SoilCyclers focuses on the reduction and remediation of multiple types of mine waste materials. The company was previously known as Brisbane Screening. One of the main goals of the company is to make onsite recycling a business-as-usual approach in the mining industry.

The company recycles nearly half a million cubic meters of soil and works with multiple governmental bodies, councils, mine developers, waste management businesses, and mine sites. SoilCyclers can handle both small and big projects to ameliorate harmful mine waste.

The Company’s Technological Solutions

SoilCyclers operates multiple types of equipment for many mine waste removal and recycling needs. Several services, such as topsoil amelioration, mobile composting, landfill mining, and geotechnical soil amendments, are offered by the company.

The Company’s Impact on the Mining Industry

The Queensland Mining Awards have recognized SoilCyclers’ impact on the mine waste remediation sector. The company took home the 2022 Queensland Mining Contractor of the Year reward. The judges recognized the company’s forward-thinking and innovative approaches to mine waste management and amelioration.

The mobile, on-site solutions offered by the company reduce the environmental impact of mine waste remediation. Reduced truck movements during projects mean that SoilCyclers can significantly mitigate emissions.

These environmental savings were recognized in the Queensland Mining Awards, alongside the company’s innovative, cost-saving solutions for turning mine and coal overburden into viable topsoil for use in multiple industries.

By providing cost-effective onsite recycling and reuse of critical mine waste materials, SoilCyclers approach helps to improve the circularity of the mining industry. Efficient conversion of overburden and waste materials into viable topsoil creates a value-added product that would otherwise be disposed of in landfills.

The company’s solutions, therefore, satisfy one of the UN’s sustainable production goals – SDG 12, which aims to encourage industry to employ new technologies and business models to achieve circular production and move the world away from its overwhelming linear economy model, and help to realize a post-carbon, post-linear economy future.

Other awards have recognized the company’s impact in the mine waste management and remediation sector, including the BHP Tailings Challenge, QMCA Innovation and Excellent Awards, and the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge. The company has won several awards and has been a finalist in multiple other awards.

The Future

The scale of waste from active and legacy mines is vast and presents a key challenge for the mining industry. Removing waste materials from the environment and reusing them for value-added products provides a route toward circularity and sustainability in the mining industry.

Through forward-thinking and collaborative approaches such as those offered by SoilCyclers, the global mining industry’s future is increasingly becoming one where sustainability and circularity are central focuses and where the environmental and societal impact of the industry is significantly mitigated.

References and Further Reading

SoilCyclers [Online] Available at: https://soilcyclers.com.au/

Queensland Mining Awards. 2022 Winners [Online] qldminingawards.com. Available at: https://qldminingawards.com/2022-winners/

Lawson, E. (2020) Understanding Mining Waste Management and Disposal Methods [Online] canadianmagazine.com. Available at:http://canadianminingmagazine.com/understanding-mining-waste-management-and-disposal-methods/

US Environmental Protection Agency. Metal Mining Waste Management Trend [Online] epa.gov. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/trinationalanalysis/metal-mining-waste-management-trend

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

FAQs

SoilCyclers: Reducing Waste in the Mining Industry? ›

Waste can be reduced by reprocessing to extract additional minerals and using waste for construction purposes in mines. Mine waste can also be reused in several industries. For instance, in the construction industry, mine waste can be used as aggregates in asphalt or building materials such as concrete.

Read On ›

How should mining waste be disposed? ›

This can make mine tailings an environmental concern, so proper transportation and disposal are crucial. Consequently, the next step is to pump mine tailings away with slurry pumps into tailings ponds. Tailings ponds are sedimentation holding ponds enclosed by dams and liners to capture and store the waste.

Discover More Details ›

What are the three waste materials generated from mining? ›

Several types of waste are generated in a mine, but three types stand out with the largest volume: waste rock, tailings and mine water. In some cases, the mine uses certain chemicals such as cyanide in the processing stage.

How do we store mining waste? ›

Tailings waste are typically stored behind large dams that can reach hundreds of metres in height and are built progressively over many years out of the mine's own waste material.

See Details ›

How does mining affect waste management? ›

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.

Find Out More ›

How can we reduce waste in the process of mining? ›

Tell Me More ›

How do mining companies typically manage the waste generated during the mining process? ›

The industry actively recycles its waste, using overburden for reprocessing, land contouring, and construction aggregates, while mine tailings are repurposed to produce various materials. Mine water is treated and repurposed for dust suppression, agricultural/industrial use, and cooling.

Show Me More ›

How can mine waste be reused? ›

If properly evaluated, mining waste can be reused to reextract minerals, provide additional fuel for power plants, supply construction materials, and repair surface and subsurface land structures altered by mining activities themselves.

Explore More ›

Which mining resource produces the most toxic waste? ›

Copper mining wastes make up the largest percentage of metal mining and processing wastes generated in the United States. There is a broad range of TENORM concentrations in copper mining wastes.

What are toxic wastes from mining? ›

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.

Show Me More ›

What is mining waste called? ›

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”.

Read The Full Story ›

What happens to tailings after mining is finished? ›

While disposal into exhausted open pits is generally a straightforward operation, disposal into underground voids is more complex. A common modern approach is to mix a certain quantity of tailings with waste aggregate and cement, creating a product that can be used to backfill underground voids and stopes.

See Details ›

What is a mine waste tip? ›

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.

Get More Info Here ›

How to treat mine waste? ›

There are several methods utilized for the treatment of mining wastewater, and these include evaporation and crystallization, biological processes, ion exchange, package plants, desalination, clarification, disinfection, zero liquid discharge, and membrane separation [8,9].

Why is mining so bad for the environment? ›

Mining can cause erosion, sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, or the contamination of soil, groundwater, and surface water by chemicals emitted from mining processes. These processes also affect the atmosphere through carbon emissions which contributes to climate change.

How does mining affect soil pollution? ›

Active mining operations are considered point sources of pollution. But drainage or runoff from abandoned mining operations often adds to nonpoint source pollution. In strip mining, for example, the top layers of soil and vegetation are removed to reveal the desired ore.

View Details ›

How should waste be disposed? ›

In general, waste should undergo material recycling or thermal treatment. If this is not possible for technical reasons, or it is not economically viable, the waste is deposited in a landfill following suitable treatment.

What is done with the waste rock from mining? ›

Waste rock

They are typically stored in the vicinity to the mine and is generally covered with several layers of soils with various grain size and composition or redeposited in the open pit or underground mine upon completion of operations, the latter is referred to as remediation or land reclamation.

Learn More ›

Why do mining tailings need to be disposed of properly? ›

The generation of mine tailings is a multi-stage process. Ore is first crushed and ground into smaller particles. Then, chemical reactions separate the valuable minerals from the rest of the material. This creates large volumes of tailings that require proper management and storage to minimize environmental impact.

Discover More Details ›