Why are we not discussing Tailings dams?

[openspaceman]

39 minutes ago, Stere said:

Why can't the spoil go back in the holes they dug it out of instead of behind dams?

 

Probably it will cost alot more but surely a  better system is possible if the regulations were in place?

 

 

If you crush rock it  takes up far more space than the hole it came from and I imagine the ore they wanted was only a few percent of the material dug. Also you have increased its surface area to leaching and exposed it to water where it had lain dry fro millions of years

[Squaredy]

41 minutes ago, Stere said:

Why can't the spoil go back in the holes they dug it out of instead of behind dams?

 

Probably it will cost alot more but surely a  better system is possible if the regulations were in place?

 

 

Yes it must all be down to money.  Of course if the mine is open cast this would be very difficult whilst the mine is being used.  They could create more smaller mines and fill in the old one as they create a new one, so constantly dealing with the waste.  But costs go up.  It is all about maximum output at minimum cost, so unless they are forced to do this they won't.  And in countries struggling to develop their economy and compete with the developed world it just isn't going to happen.  Countries like Australia and Canada have no excuse though.

 

The simple fact is us humans make a mess when we exploit the Earth's resources and the default response is to just leave the mess and move on.

[Woodworks]

I confess to never hearing the term before but have seen them around the local china clay pits. When I was a lad they were all flooded but now have been filled in and grassed over but it took an age to do. Used to regularly pollute the river Plym which would turn white and contaminate the salmon redds with the fine silts. 

[Squaredy]

Now this one I did know about.  Aberfan.

 

 

It was not of course a dam but still spoil from mining.  My grandad lived about 12 miles away and walked there and tried to help rescue the children in the school.  This is the worst UK failure of spoil I believe, but certainly not the only one.  Thankfully we in the UK seem to manage the waste now - all paid for by taxpayers of course.

Edited May 3, 2019 by Squaredy

[Gary Prentice]

Going off topic I know but the discussion has bought to mind a tour I had forty years ago to Windscale/Sellafield. 

 

The tour guide explained that the spent fuel rods were encased in concrete within steel barrels before being 'buried' (dumped).

 

 Considering that the half life was something like 200 or 500 years, she was asked what the life expectancy of the barrels were?

" Around fifty years" she quietly answered. "But we expect to have the technology to retrieve them and deal with them by then!"

 

We're still a very short sighted species.

[tree-fancier123]

6 hours ago, openspaceman said:

 

I do not believe even the socialist governments after the first and second world wars approached communism, even though the US thought they did and severely restricted them.

Communism would have meant Stalin having the same standard of living as someone piling up the spoil in a tailings dam