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Tailings and Mine Waste Conference

Transition to Filtered Tailings at LaRonde Gold Mine Masengo, Edouard; Ingabire, Edouardine-Pascale; Boily, Sylvain; Létourneau, Yanick; Laporte, Patrick; Guay, Francis; Shaigetz, Marielle Limoges; Huza, Jessica; Julien, Michel R.

Abstract

Since 1988, LaRonde Gold Mine (LaRonde) has exploited a polymetallic orebody in Quebec, Canada. Slurry tailings are deposited in two tailings storage facilities (TSF) named “Main TSF” and “Extension A4.” At the end of 2022, Main TSF and Extension A4 TSF reached their full storage capacity with slurry tailings deposition. In order to reduce the risks related to the slurry tailings management, LaRonde decided to transition to filtered tailings deposition in October 2022. This is an emerging technology that has been gaining in popularity over the past few years. A new filtered tailings stack with 12 million tons capacity is to be constructed over the existing Extension A4 TSF. The transition to filtered tailings required the commissioning of a filtration plant and the construction of a new water pond. To enable the construction of the filtered tailings stack, it was necessary to place a waste rock platform (bridgelift) over the slurry tailings stored within Extension A4. This paper describes the geotechnical investigations of the foundation soils and the slurry tailings carried out at Extension A4 TSF to support the design of the filtered tailings stack, and the construction, monitoring, and surveillance program implemented as of March 1st, 2023. The paper also discusses the results of large-scale field loading tests completed to verify and inform the design of the filtered tailings stack.

Item Metadata

Title
Transition to Filtered Tailings at LaRonde Gold Mine
Creator
Masengo, Edouard; Ingabire, Edouardine-Pascale; Boily, Sylvain; Létourneau, Yanick; Laporte, Patrick; Guay, Francis; Shaigetz, Marielle Limoges; Huza, Jessica; Julien, Michel R.
Contributor
Tailings and Mine Waste Conference (2023 : Vancouver, B.C.); University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering
Date Issued
2023-11
Description
Since 1988, LaRonde Gold Mine (LaRonde) has exploited a polymetallic orebody in Quebec, Canada. Slurry tailings are deposited in two tailings storage facilities (TSF) named “Main TSF” and “Extension A4.” At the end of 2022, Main TSF and Extension A4 TSF reached their full storage capacity with slurry tailings deposition. In order to reduce the risks related to the slurry tailings management, LaRonde decided to transition to filtered tailings deposition in October 2022. This is an emerging technology that has been gaining in popularity over the past few years. A new filtered tailings stack with 12 million tons capacity is to be constructed over the existing Extension A4 TSF. The transition to filtered tailings required the commissioning of a filtration plant and the construction of a new water pond. To enable the construction of the filtered tailings stack, it was necessary to place a waste rock platform (bridgelift) over the slurry tailings stored within Extension A4. This paper describes the geotechnical investigations of the foundation soils and the slurry tailings carried out at Extension A4 TSF to support the design of the filtered tailings stack, and the construction, monitoring, and surveillance program implemented as of March 1st, 2023. The paper also discusses the results of large-scale field loading tests completed to verify and inform the design of the filtered tailings stack.
Genre
Conference Paper
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2024-02-15
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0439974
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/87442
Affiliation
Non UBC
Peer Review Status
Unreviewed
Scholarly Level
Other
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International