ICMM, 2019. Tailings management. International Council on Mining and Minerals (ICMM). Accessed 21 November 2019.
" }, "editorialNote": { "en": [ "source:UNDRR HIPS" ] }, "scopeNote": { "en": [ "Tailings are the fine-grained waste material remaining after the metals and minerals recoverable with the technical processes applied have been extracted. The material is rejected at the ‘tail end’ of the process with a particle size normally ranging from 10 μm to 1.0 mm (UNECE, 2014:3). Tailings are mixtures of crushed rock and processing fluids from mills, washeries or concentrators that remain after the extraction of economic metals, minerals, mineral fuels or coal from the mine (Kossoff et al., 2014). Tailings are the by-product of several extractive industries, including those for aluminium, coal, oil sands, uranium and precious and base metals (Kossoff et al., 2014). The chemical composition of tailings depends on the mineralogy of the ore body, the nature of the processing fluids used to extract the economic metals, the efficiency of the extraction process and the degree of weathering during storage in the dammed impoundment. Major components usually include such elements as silica also known as silicon dioxide (SiO2), iron (Fe), oxygen (O), aluminium (Al), calcium (Ca), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), sodium (Na), phosphorus (P), titanium (Ti) and sulphur (S) (Kossoff et al., 2014). Tailings may also contain toxic elements such as arsenic (As) or chemical reagents such as cyanide (CN−) which can be toxic in sufficient concentrations (Jewell, 1998). As an example, uranium tailings are radioactive and can retain the majority of the radioactivity of the ore from which they are derived. In parallel, their radioactivity is very long-lived; they contain a range of biotoxic heavy metals and other compounds; they may contain sulphidic minerals and so generate acid mine drainage; their granular to slime constituency makes them readily leachable, erodible or collapsible under different conditions; the common method of surface disposal exposes a large surface area to the natural elements and thus increases the risk releasing radiation flux, radioactive and geochemically toxic dusts, and interaction with surface water systems; and the large surface area of these generally thin tailings deposits (or ‘piles’) adversely affects large areas of land and renders potentially valuable land unfit for other uses (IAEA, 2004:6). Tailings are also of concern due to the danger of tailing dam failures (one of the most common tailings storage methods). Failure of mining dams and the release of toxic waves of material can claim thousands of lives, affect water and sediment quality, fish, terrestrial animal life and plant life, cause irreversible environmental damage, and negatively impact biodiversity and the reputation of the mining industry." ] }, "broader": { "id": "http://connectivity-hub.com/terms/cb5ea51e-68f4-4da9-a6d6-c6c8b6aa4ae3", "prefLabel": { "en": "Waste" } }, "inScheme": [ { "id": "http://connectivity-hub.com/terms/", "title": { "en": "Climate Connectivity Taxonomy" } } ], "inSchemeAll": [ { "id": "http://connectivity-hub.com/terms/" } ], "@context": { "@version": 1.1, "id": "@id", "type": "@type", "@vocab": "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#", "xsd": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#", "dct": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/", "dc": "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/", "schema": "https://schema.org/", "vann": "http://purl.org/vocab/vann/", "ldp": "http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp#", "owl": "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#", "title": { "@id": "dct:title", "@container": "@language" }, "dc:title": { "@id": "dc:title", "@container": "@language" }, "dc:description": { "@id": "dc:description", "@container": "@language" }, "description": { "@id": "dct:description", "@container": "@language" }, "license": { "@id": "dct:license", "@container": "@language" }, "issued": { "@id": "dct:issued", "@type": "xsd:date" }, "created": { "@id": "dct:created", "@type": "xsd:date" }, "modified": { "@id": "dct:modified", "@type": "xsd:date" }, "creator": "dct:creator", "publisher": "dct:publisher", "preferredNamespacePrefix": "vann:preferredNamespacePrefix", "preferredNamespaceUri": "vann:preferredNamespaceUri", "isBasedOn": "schema:isBasedOn", "source": "dct:source", "prefLabel": { "@container": "@language" }, "altLabel": { "@container": [ "@language", "@set" ] }, "hiddenLabel": { "@container": [ "@language", "@set" ] }, "definition": { "@container": "@language" }, "note": { "@container": [ "@language", "@set" ] }, "changeNote": { "@container": [ "@language", "@set" ] }, "editorialNote": { "@container": [ "@language", "@set" ] }, "historyNote": { "@container": [ "@language", "@set" ] }, "scopeNote": { "@container": [ "@language", "@set" ] }, "notation": { "@container": "@set" }, "example": { "@container": "@language" }, "narrower": { "@container": "@set" }, "related": { "@container": "@set" }, "relatedMatch": { "@container": "@set" }, "narrowerTransitive": { "@container": "@set" }, "broaderTransitive": { "@container": "@set" }, "broadMatch": { "@container": "@set" }, "narrowMatch": { "@container": "@set" }, "closeMatch": { "@container": "@set" }, "exactMatch": { "@container": "@set" }, "hasTopConcept": { "@container": "@set" }, "inScheme": { "@container": "@set" }, "topConceptOf": { "@container": "@set" }, "deprecated": { "@id": "owl:deprecated", "@type": "xsd:boolean" }, "isReplacedBy": { "@id": "dct:isReplacedBy", "@container": "@set" } } }