Rheological Properties of Tailings Materials

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Rheological Properties of Tailings Materials 
 
Aditi Sharma 
M.tech, Geotechnical Engineering 
IIT Bhubaneswar, India 
Pratik Goel 
M.tech, Geotechnical Engineering 
IIT Bhubaneswar, India 
Abstract:
Mining and mineral extraction is very important 
sector of economy but along with that it also leads to production 
of huge amount of wastes which is called tailings. The main 
issue is the storage or the disposal of the tailings because if it is 
not handled carefully it can lead to huge damages. Thus, this 
report mainly focuses on the flow properties of the tailings what 
remedial measures can be taken to reduce the failures if it is 
stored in reservoirs. Various literatures, reports or technical 
journal has been referred and it is been concluded that flow 
mainly influenced by the yield stress and the viscosity of the 
tailing fluid. So, the main focus is to increase viscosity and yield 
stress so that on failure of any structure flow can be delayed 
and damages could be avoided. Thus, it is inferred the best 
solution can be thickening of fluid or making it as non-
Newtonian. Also, small size particles can be added and 
concentration of particles can be increase. 
 
Keywords— Rheology, Newtonian, tailings, viscosity 
 
I.INTRODUCTION 
With the rapid growth of the global economy, demand for 
mineral deposits has escalated, resulting in a significant 
increase in yearly mine tailings discharge. The large 
proportion of the tailings which have been heaped on the 
land results in the formation of tailings reservoirs, and 
as tailing dam safety is bad, it leads to devastation as a result 
of a tailings dam collapsing and causing a catastrophic 
tragedy beyond estimate. Furthermore, the breach of a 
tailings dam has all of the hallmarks of a catastrophic event. 
As a result, in past few years, this has become one of the 
most hotly debated topics in catastrophe prevention and 
mitigation. 
In mine, tailings are one of the most dangerous hazards. 
Tailings are the leftovers from the refining of an ore's 
profitable fraction. 
The link between the strain and the stress in the flowing of 
the tailings, which displays them
kinematic and physical features, is referred to as the 
rheological characteristics of tailings, and it is a significant 
aspect of research to analyse the rheological behaviour of 
tailings. The choice of rheological parameters is critical 
since they are impacted by specific weight, solid 
concentrations, 
slump, 
tailing/cement 
ratio, 
and 
chemical/physical characteristics of the mill tailings. In this 
context, assessing the homogeneity and the simplicity with 
which cemented tailing backfill can be mixed, carried, laid, 
and compacted while preventing blockage or malfunction of 
pipelines delivering cemented tailing backfill is critical. 
Many researches have looked at the rheological behaviour 
of cemented tailing backfill in terms of consistency, 
flowability, and workability. The Bingham model, is the 
model which requires two separate properties to describe the 
rheological behaviour of cemented tailing backfill, is widely 
accepted. These properties include yield stress that matches 
to the shear stress that is required to begin flow of the tailing 
backfill (cemented) and the plastic viscosity, which 
characterises the paste/slurry resistance to the deformation 
of the tailing backfill (cemented) under the influence of 
certain external stresses. 
II.NEED OF STUDY 
The tailings obtained from the piled dam are generally in a 
saturated condition during the functioning of a tailing’s 
reservoir. When there is a collapse of the tailings dam, the 
dam and the water in the tailing’s reservoir are released 
simultaneously. Earthen flow forms, which will have an 
influence on the reservoir's riparian zone. As a result, 
studying the rheological features of the tailings was critical 
in terms of understanding the safety of a tailings dam and the 
effects of the sludge discharge under the circumstances of a 
collapsed dam. 
Because of the large levels of non-ideal (unclean) 
suspensions used in the industries like mining, innovative, 
inexpensive, and transportable rheological methods and 
techniques were required to test and understand the 
fundamental flow parameters in both shear and compression 
rheological behaviour. Furthermore, some previous 
empirical methodologies have to be adjusted and understood 
in a more basic way in order for the data to be employed in 
design. The disposal technique has improved dramatically as 
a result of greater understanding and use of this rheology. 
As there are many parallels between the soil minerals and 
the tailings, because they're both pore media made up of the