A new technology has been developed for tailings dry disposal on surface. With this concept, the fresh tailings from a mineral processing plant will be disposed in a surface impoundment in a dry status after a very short period of time (1 to 2 days). This will eliminate the problems (such as, dam failure and environment pollution) associated with the traditional tailings pound storage.
The dry condition is achieved by adding a special binder, HiFa Bond, to the tailings at disposal. The binder has superior properties over Portland cement. Numerous experiments were conducted. The results have been very satisfactory and prompted potential industrial applications.