Tailings management expertise: hydraulic mining, TSF reclamation, and embankment construction solutions

GEM Projects is a tailings management specialist, providing study and operation services for:

  • Reclamation of tailings via Hydraulic Mining for reprocessing, underground emplacement or TSF reuse

  • TSF embankment construction

GEM Projects personnel experience in tailings management includes:

  • Metropolitan Colliery – emplacement of coal tailings and rejects underground – Engineer and project manager for desktop study, university trials, pilot plant construction to full scale emplacement delivery UG over 3 years

  • BHP, South Walker Creek Mine, coal – Management of fine coal TSF reclamation project through hydraulic mining and reprocessing through the mine site’s CHPP

  • Delivery of multiple Hydraulic Mining DFS / studies for coal and poly-metallic TSF reclamation operations

  • Delivery of coal TSF embankment construction projects including the relocation & pumping of tailings

GEM Projects will deliver a cost-effective outcome, as a trusted consultant during project feasibility to a turnkey service contractor providing a transparent hydraulic mining solution.

Our Past Tailings Management Jobs

  • Hydraulic Mining – Small 50 – 150t/hr coal tailings reclamation project

    Management of fine coal TSF reclamation project through hydraulic mining, pumping and reprocessing through the mine site’s CHPP. Proposed Hydraulic Mining solution included:

    Water supplied to 2 x HP pumps at approx. 280m3/hour

    HP pumps deliver water to 1 x monitor (1 x spare) at 25bar. 1 x monitor capable of up to 500t/hr

    Mined tailings slurry flows via mined trench to a pontoon VSP and is pumped to a trash screen & surge tank

    Screened slurry is pumped via 2 x slurry pumps 1.5km to process plant

  • Hydraulic Mining – Large 1500t/hr polymetallic tailings reclamation project

    DFS delivery as Hydraulic Mining content expert. Proposed Hydraulic Mining solution included:

    Water supplied to 4 x HP pumps at approx. 1,200m3/hour

    HP pumps deliver water to 4 x monitors (2 x spare) at 25bar. Each monitor mining 500t/hr

    Mined tailings slurry flows down trench to 4 x pontoon VSPs and is pumped to a trash screen & surge tanks

    Screened slurry is pumped via 3 x slurry pumps 5km to process

  • Coal Rejects Disposal Underground

    Rejects or fine coal Tailings Backfill is the process of utilising waste products from the CHPP (rejects and tailings) to make a pumpable paste for delivery into the old workings.

    As a reject disposal method, backfill is more expensive (per tonne of reject) than normal surface emplacement methods so it is not the lowest cost option, unless there is a specific reason. This reject utilisation method may actually make some operations more viable due to the cost of existing constraints.

    Reasons for utilising rejects or coal tailings as backfill may include:

    insufficient surface area, or environmental approval constraints, to enable the construction of a Tailing Storage Facility (TSF)

    the goaf gas management is managed via goaf entombment using hydraulically delivered backfill

    the cost of the backfill plant (between $8M and $14M) can provide up to $20M to $50M in operational savings by utilising cement blended fill UG. Delivered via an underground reticulation system, the cement blended fill is used to construct concrete roadways and bulkheads

    A number of studies have been performed for Metropolitan Colliery, New Hope, Tahmoor and Springsure and Newlands Coal Mine.

    Tim Gilroy was Minecraft Project Manager for backfill, washplant, coal handling, supply chain, water balance and surface infrastructure.  Tim delivered an innovative backfill plant essential for project viability from desktop to European lab trials to Australian lab trials to pilot scale then to full scale.

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