With the increasing need for the mining industry to conserve water and energy, new technologies and testing programmes are being explored during the design and development of both future and current mineral extraction and processing operations. The goal is to reduce water and energy consumption, reduce costs associated with design, construction and operation, as well as preventing short and long term liabilities. For a mineral operator, tailings handling and storage significantly contributes to obtaining these goals.

Through tailings testing programmes, the behaviour and characterisation of the tailings can be determined for a range of design and operational conditions. This information can assist in providing best practices with the handling, transportation and storage of tailings to optimise energy use, reduce tailings storage construction costs, whilst reducing make-up water requirements by improving water recovery and preventing naturally occurring losses.

TailPro Consultants has been established by industrial partners to assist industry with the technical understanding and development of tailings related design and operational systems.