Dewatering of mine tailings using electrokinetic geosynthetics

Many mining operations produce tailings that dewater very slowly under self-weight consolidation. One way of reducing the water content of such tailings is by electroosmotic dewatering. Although the technique has been used with some success in civil engineering applications, it is still largely seen as a solution of last resort. This is probably due to the high energy costs reported in the literature, as well as problems of very rapid corrosion of metal electrodes. This paper describes a study using newly developed electrokinetic geosynthetics (EKGs) as electrodes for the in situ dewatering of mine tailings. Laboratory tests were undertaken on mineral sands tailings in both a purpose-built testing cell and a laboratory testing tank using EKGs, followed by an outdoor experiment in a tank containing approximately 9 m(3) of the tailings. This test was run for over 2 months. Energy consumption in the outdoor test was less than 1 kWh per dry tonne of material dewatered and there was no sign of electrode deterioration even after 2 months of usage. The results point to a potentially powerful technique for reducing the water content of tailings ponds in situ, thus increasing storage space, improving stability, and facilitating closure of these facilities.