Abstract
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers an area of approximately 2 million km2 and is rich in natural resources that are necessary for industrial development. The estimated mineral wealth beneath the Kingdom’s soil is approximately USD 1.33 trillion, as reported by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources. The Kingdom’s vision for 2030 is to develop the mining sector to become the third pillar of the domestic economy. Therefore, exploration and mining activities are expected to accelerate over the next decade, which will lead to increased waste production. New executive regulations issued in January 2021 contain several sustainable elements related to the environment, social responsibility, and occupational health and safety. Therefore, this study aims to promote an example of sustainable mining activities in the Kingdom that could be adapted to meet the regulatory requirements. Cemented paste backfill samples of varying composition were made with waste materials from a Saudi copper mine for re-injection into underground mining cavities to minimize waste exposure to the environment. The samples were tested for unconfined compressive strength (UCS) after 7, 14, 28, 56, and 90 days of curing. Results from a statistically designed experiment technique show that the samples developed sufficient strength to be used in mine backfilling applications. Strong negative relationships were detected between the UCS and the water-to-binder ratio. There is strong potential for mine backfill technology to be applied to a wide range of Saudi Arabian mines to enhance the sustainability of the mining sector.
Highlights
Mine tailings are waste products from mineral processing operations that either contain no valuable minerals or contain valuable minerals that are not economically feasible to recover [1,2,3,4]
Saudi Arabia and to comply with the revised Saudi mining regulations, this study aims to investigate the feasibility of re-using tailings and using pozzolanic materials in mine backfill
It is expected that the number of mining projects in Saudi Arabia will dramatically It is expected number of mining projects inofSaudi
Summary
Mine tailings are waste products from mineral processing operations that either contain no valuable minerals or contain valuable minerals that are not economically feasible to recover [1,2,3,4]. Tailings are in the form of fine gangue particles ranging from 1 to 600 μm in size and mixed with process water and (sometimes) chemical reagents [9,10,11]. These are discharged as slurries into lagoons or tailings ponds at the mine site to permit the gravity separation of wastewater from solids. Solid waste accumulates over the life of the mine, and the management of it poses many challenges in terms of storage, stability, and safety, in addition to the negative environmental impacts [14]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
