Article A Comprehensive Designation of Tailings Storage Dams- Case Study: Sangan Iron Mine Project in Iran

Abstract

Tailings disposal is an essential operation in mining projects. After blasting the rocks, the exploited ore are transferred to specific industrial plants for processing operations. During such operations, a large amount of pollutant tailings are generated inevitably. Such produced tailings must be safely stored in appropriate storage dams. In this research, a tailing disposal dam has been designed to store the tailings of the Iranian Sangan Iron Mine project. The sizing and geometry of the dam were designed to minimize the construction works, while maintaining a stable and operationally feasible facility. To assess the stability of the proposed tailings storage dam, a numerical analyses was also conducted to evaluate both static and dynamic stability of the dam embankment. The results showed that the embankment is stable under both static and dynamic loading conditions. Hence, the proposed design can be successfully adopted for construction of a tailing dam in the subjected project. In addition, the methodology presented in this research can be used by geotechnics engineers to design safely operational tailings storage dams in mining projects.