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Oil, Gas & Mining vocabulary · Environmental Impact & Closure

Tailings

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

/ˈteɪlɪŋz/nounCore term

In oil, gas & mining, tailings means: The finely ground rock and water left over after the valuable minerals have been removed from ore in a processing plant.

In Turkish: maden atığı, cevher hazırlama atığı, flotasyon artığı

How it is used

Tailings are pumped as a slurry to a tailings storage facility (TSF), usually behind a tailings dam. Managing them safely is one of the biggest environmental and safety issues in mining; companies report on tailings volumes, dam stability and water recycling.

Example sentences

  1. The tailings are thickened to recover water before they go to the dam.

  2. Some mines now filter their tailings and store them as dry stacks.

Common collocations

  • tailings storage facility (TSF)
  • tailings dam
  • tailings slurry
  • dry-stack tailings
  • tailings damAn embankment built to hold mine tailings and water in a storage area. If it fails, a flood of mud can destroy villages and rivers downstream.
  • flotationA process that separates valuable minerals from waste: chemicals make the mineral particles stick to air bubbles, which rise to form a froth that is skimmed off.
  • acid mine drainage (AMD)Acidic, metal-rich water that forms when sulphide minerals such as pyrite in mine waste or workings meet air and water. It can pollute rivers for decades.
  • recoveryThe percentage of the valuable metal in the ore that a processing plant actually manages to capture in its final product.

More terms: Environmental Impact & Closure

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