EVALUATION OF CONSOLIDATION BEHAVIOR OF MINE TAILINGS

This paper presents the results of a physical and numerical model stud y of impounded gold mine tailings produced at Boddington Gold Mine in Western Australia. The centrifuge modeling technique is used to replic ate the staged filling of the tailings impoundment to assess both the short- and long-term consolidation behavior of the tailings. At the ti me of testing, filling of the impoundment is nearly complete, and fiel d data are available for comparison at various stages in the model con struction. Numerical analyses of the centrifuge tests are also perform ed and found to give encouraging results. The good agreement between t he field and centrifuge model data and the numerical results allows pr edictions of the future behavior of the tailings to be made with a hig h degree of confidence.