Alternative Title
Paper No. 10.01
Location
St. Louis, Missouri
Date
12 Mar 1998, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Abstract
The environmental regulation for Ranger Uranium Mine, in the Northern Territory, Australia, requires the stored tailings (irrespective of where they are finally stored, whether in a tailings dam or in mined-out pits) be capped safely to minimise contamination, erosion and radon gas emission, and also to enable the site to be rehabilitated through revegetation. The hydraulically deposited neutralised tailings in the existing tailings dam have a ‘gel-like’ structure which hinders the consolidation process. Consequently, the in situ tailings have a high water content, low permeability and extremely low shear strength. The present paper describes the case history of a successful capping trial constructed on these extremely soft tailings. Environmental geotechnical issues are highlighted and investigated. Results, especially the characteristics of the tailings observed during the construction and subsequent monitoring, are also discussed.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
4th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 1998 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Sheng, Y.; Peter, P.; Wei, Y.; and Milnes, A. R., "Capping of an Extremely Soft Neutralised Uranium Tailings − A Case History in Environmental Geomechanics" (1998). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 2.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/4icchge/4icchge-session10/2
Capping of an Extremely Soft Neutralised Uranium Tailings − A Case History in Environmental Geomechanics
St. Louis, Missouri
The environmental regulation for Ranger Uranium Mine, in the Northern Territory, Australia, requires the stored tailings (irrespective of where they are finally stored, whether in a tailings dam or in mined-out pits) be capped safely to minimise contamination, erosion and radon gas emission, and also to enable the site to be rehabilitated through revegetation. The hydraulically deposited neutralised tailings in the existing tailings dam have a ‘gel-like’ structure which hinders the consolidation process. Consequently, the in situ tailings have a high water content, low permeability and extremely low shear strength. The present paper describes the case history of a successful capping trial constructed on these extremely soft tailings. Environmental geotechnical issues are highlighted and investigated. Results, especially the characteristics of the tailings observed during the construction and subsequent monitoring, are also discussed.
