HYDRAULIC SORTING OF CO-DISPOSED COARSE AND FINE COAL WASTES

Nineteen field trials of the co-disposal of fine coal tailings and coa rse coal wastes were conducted at the dual Goonyella-Riverside mine in Queensland and at the Hunter Valley No. 1 and Warkworth mines in New South Wales, Australia. The profiles of and the sorting that occurred on the co-disposal deltas are described and an existing theory of suba erial deposition, originally developed for mine tailings alone, is sho wn to apply to the co-disposed wastes. This enables the dimensionless profiles of large deltas, which may take years to deposit, to be predi cted from data obtained from a small delta formed in a few days or eve n hours.