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A Promising Approach to Mitigate Risks on the Existing Tailings Dams in Brazil

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Abstract

Mining operations lead to the production of large quantities of mineral waste, such as fluid fine tailings whose disposal is rather challenging. In Brazil, tailings disposal is facing a critical situation due to the large accidents that took place in the last couple of years. As a response to these accidents, the Brazilian Mining Agency became stricter on licensing mining complexes and issued an interruption on activities on 56 tailings dams. In this paper, the authors propose a promising approach to minimize risks on the existing tailings dams hoping that the industry succeeds at mining avoiding social harms and environmental damages. The results presented herein showed that in situ electrical dewatering is a promising technology that offers many benefits. It can significantly increase the solids content of liquefiable tailings stratum within a short time. This leads to tailings masses possessing higher shear strength. As a consequence, this technology might well lead to safe tailing dams in Brazil bringing socio-economic and environmental benefits.

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Acknowledgements

The study presented in this article was made possible by the support of DAAD to the joint research project established by Exceed Swindon between PUC-Rio and Tongji University on Innovative Approaches to Tailings Water Management. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Samarco Mineração S.A. for granting access to Germano Mining Complex and providing tailings samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rua Marquês de São Vicente, 225, Rio de Janeiro, 22451-900, Brazil

    José Tavares Araruna Jr., Ronald Mejia Sanchez & Paola Machado Barreto Manhães

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China

    Xuejiao Qi & Hongtao Wang

  3. Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China

    Shuguang Liu

  4. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rua Marquês de São Vicente, 225, Rio de Janeiro, 22451-900, Brazil

    Rodrigo Fernandes Magalhães de Souza

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  1. José Tavares Araruna Jr.
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  2. Ronald Mejia Sanchez
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  3. Xuejiao Qi
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  4. Hongtao Wang
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  5. Shuguang Liu
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  6. Rodrigo Fernandes Magalhães de Souza
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  7. Paola Machado Barreto Manhães
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Correspondence to José Tavares Araruna Jr. or Hongtao Wang.

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Araruna, J.T., Sanchez, R.M., Qi, X. et al. A Promising Approach to Mitigate Risks on the Existing Tailings Dams in Brazil. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 109, 44–50 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-022-03551-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-022-03551-1

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