Acid drainage reassessment of mining tailings, Black Swan Nickel Mine, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia

This paper describes the geochemical testing of mine tailings sourced from the Black Swan Ni Mine located near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Acid-base accounting was used to provide an indication of the acid generating capacity of two kinds of mining tailings: disseminated-ore tailings from the Cygnet Tailings Dam Storage Facility (CTDSF) and massive-ore tailings from the Silver Swan Tailings Dam Storage Facility (SSTDSF). All of the tailings in SSTDSF have acid generating potential which is consistent with previous research reports. New findings in this paper reveal that approximately 16% of the tailings in CTDSF have the potential to be acid generating. In contrast, previous reports state that the disseminated-ore tailings are classified as non-acid forming. Most of the potential acid generating tailings in the CTDSF are found in the upper-middle sections of the tailings profile, but some are located at the bottom of the tailings dam. The upper-middle section of the tailings is oxidized because these tailings have interacted with atmospheric O-2 and rain and surface water. Oxidation of the bottom tailings in the CTDSF may be due to infiltration of ground water into hidden fractures under the east bank of CTDSF, which caused these tailings to oxidize under closed and reduced conditions. The acid drainage in the tailings dam storage facility was observed 3 a, after the development of the Black Swan Nickel project. This delayed production of acid drainage was likely due to the slow rates of acid neutralization provided by alteration gouge minerals such as Mg/Fe-carbonates (magnesite-siderite series) associated with the Ni ores. The acid drainage leaking from the tailings dams has contaminated neighboring ground water via increased acidity and heavy metals. Because of the potential acid generation in some of the disseminated ore tailings, it is inadvisable to use disseminated ore tailings as cover materials in the storage facility to isolate the underlying potentially-acid-forming tailings from O-2 and water, as proposed by previous research reports. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.