Cabildo Mine Backfill System

Authors: Martinson, R; Cooke, R; Stipo, N

Presented at: Paste 2005

Paper Abstract

Minera Las Cenizas is planning to fill mined out sections of the Cabildo Mine (located 150 km north of Santiago) with tailings, to delay the construction of a new surface tailings storage facility for the mine. About 2.0 million cubic metres of void space is available to backfill tailings at a rate of 2,500 ton/d.

The paper presents a study conducted to establish the feasibility of placing tailings into the mine voids.

A trade-off study indicated that the optimum concen- tration to place the tailings is in the range of 62% to 64% by mass (i.e. as a high density thickened tailings). The paper describes the following aspects of the system: • Test work conducted for the project (rheology and sedimentation tests). • Conceptual trade-off study for optimum concentration deposition. • Thickened tailings pump and pipeline distribution system. • Method for filling the mine voids with tailings and recovery supernatant water. • Project initial costs.

It is expected that the system will be commissioned in March 2006. 318 Paste 2005, Santiago, Chile Cabildo Mine Backfill System Martinson, R. et al.