Geotube® Dewatering Technology

For Mining and Mineral

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 One Total Solution For Mining And Mineral Processing
TenCate Geotube® dewatering technology provides a simple and cost effective way of dewatering large and small volumes of Mining and Mineral
wastes. This proven technology can accommodate dewatering and containment in one, cost-effective operation. Utilizing TenCate Geotube®
containers is an effective alternative to mechanical processing that enables the capture of precious metals and the efficient management of mine
tailings, coal sludge, and other mine waste streams. With volume reduction as high as 90%, high solids levels make removal and disposal easy.

TenCate Geotube® containers can be custom-sized to fit available space and be easily
removed when dewatering is complete. Dewatered solids can be safely stored on site, re-
utilized to build dykes and berms, or disposed of in a landfill without expensive dredging or
transportation.

Sludge before (left) and after (right) treatment with

Geotube® dewatering technology.

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Simple, Versatile TenCate Geotube® Dewatering Technology Is Ideal For:

• Pond and Lagoon Maintenance • Acid Mine Drainage

(polishing ponds) (dyke and berm construction) (for active or inactive mines)
• Tailings Management • Precious Metals Recovery • Specialty Applications
• Water Resource Management • Emergency and Disaster Management
(water reclamation and reuse) (uninterrupted mining operations)

1. Filling 2. Dewatering 3. Consolidation

Material is pumped into Clear effluent water simply Solids remain in the bag.
the Geotube® container. drains from the Geotube® Volume reduction can be up
Environmentally safe container. Over 99 percent of to 90 percent. When full,
polymers are added, which solids are captured, and clear the Geotube® container and
make the solids bind together filtrate can be collected and contents can be deposited
and water separate. recirculated through at a landfill, stored on site,
the system. or land reclaimed.

GEOSYNTHETICS | 2
Case Study Pond & Lagoon Maintenance
Maintaining key water quality discharge parameters and sufficient free board for continuous
application Pond & Lagoon operation is of the highest priority at all mining operations. The major environmental concern
Maintenance
with wastewater lagoons is the potential leakage to groundwater. Wastewater can contain
location Malaysia a range of pollutants (e.g. organics, nutrients, salts, metals) either acidic, or alkaline. Often
hazardous substances require the highest level of care. Overtopping of a full lagoon or
compromised pond liners can lead to leakage and environmental concerns.
A processing plant needed to clean an oil
sludge pond in order to complete repairs Through continuous or event driven pond maintenance dewatering programs to insure sufficient
to the damaged HDPE lining of the pond. capacity, TenCate Geotube® dewatering and containment technology provides a simple, low cost
The sludge had to be removed in order to solution. Easy to set up, even in remote locations, TenCate Geotube® dewatering technology can
perform the maintenance work. The original quickly be deployed to reduce lagoon levels or be used to contain the full volume of dewatered
proposed plan involved pumping the sludge waste material for a complete cleanout.
into tanks and transporting to a waste
water treatment plant, but this solution was
too costly. TenCate Geotube® dewatering
technology was successfully introduced to
contain and dewater the oil sludge in order
to empty the pond and repair the leaking
HDPE liner.

Suspended solids from the ponds was

chemically conditioned and captured in
the Geotube® containers. The associated
costs of pumping the sludge into tanks and
transporting it several kilometers away for Dewatering of oil sludge Pond empty for HDPE liner repair
processing and disposal were eliminated.

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Tailings Management Case Study
“Tailings” refer to the end of the mining process, constituting what is left over after the
substances of economic value have been removed. They generally consist of ground rock and application Tailings Management
process effluents that are generated in a mine processing plant. Tailings are commonly stored
location Finland
in an impoundment – an engineered structure – used as a settling basin/storage container.
Management of these storage basins is critical to a mining operation to insure there is sufficient
capacity to keep the mine running.
Europe’s largest nickel mine faced an
overwhelming challenge of full water-
Adding additional capacity is often done by raising the perimeter of the basins, or removing and storage basins after record rainfall caused a
dewatering the built up sediments in the storage ponds. TenCate Geotube® dewatering technology halt to mining operations and the potential
delivers a high volume, low cost solution reducing disposal costs by consolidating higher solids environmental issues associated with
with very little maintenance. Dewatered solids can be safely stored on site, within the container, a leaking tailings pond. Unprecedented
eliminating the spread of airborne particles or mechanically removed and transported to an rainfall required the mine to store millions
approved location. In many cases, dewatered tailings contained inside the Geotube® units can of cubic meters of excess water in basins
be used as a structure within the pond or placed on top of the perimeter of the berm to provide across the 60 km2 site. The rainwater had
additional capacity. become contaminated with water high in
sulphates coming from mining operations.

After several months, the mine was forced

to halt mining ore due to water building up
in the deepest section of the open-cast
mine. This situation was further aggravated
when the tailings pond containing gypsum
sediment began leaking. The majority of
the water that leaked from the tailings
pond contained both metals and sulphate
compounds. This combination of challenges
meant that the mine’s environmental and
water-management specialists needed an
effective solution capable of delivering
sufficient treatment capacity without being
excessively expensive to implement.

TenCate Geotube® dewatering technology

was implemented to dewater and capture
the heavy metals for the massive water
purification operation. Concentrations of
heavy metals fell well below the threshold
limits set by the local environmental
authorities. As a result of the successful
treatment of sludge and mining effluent, the
nickel mine was able to start up ore-mining
and crushing operations again.

GEOSYNTHETICS | 4
Case Study Water Resource Management
Water is often limited in supply in mining applications making it a precious commodity that needs
application Water Resource to be reclaimed and recycled through the process. TenCate Geotube® dewatering technology, in
Management
combination with proper coagulant or polymer conditioning, will begin releasing water from the
location Quebec, Canada suspended solids the moment they enter the tube.

The specially engineered TenCate Geotube® textile retains the solids while releasing the clear
A zinc mine at an isolated site faced a water through the pores of the fabric. The effluent is typically of a quality that can be reused for
challenge to provide a water supply to mine processing operations, making this an economical and sustainable technology for mine water
its drilling operation. As drilling holes management.
are spread over the mine site, there was
no available water. The mine required a
solution for treatment of drilling water to
an adequate level to be recirculated in the
drilling process.

TenCate Geotube® dewatering technology

provided a customized solution to implement
a closed loop system to manage on site drill
water, even in winter conditions. TenCate
Geotube® containers, in combination with
a continuous, monitored treatment system,
provided the filtration of the contaminated
drilling water, where solids were captured
and clean water could be reused in the
drilling process. This solution eliminated the Closed loop process for drilling Dewatering under winter conditions
requirement for the installation of a water water management
supply at this isolated site.

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Beneficial Reuse Case Study
Beneficial reuse of mining by-products to create structures can positively impact the environment
by preserving limited landfill space that otherwise would be consumed by normal tailings application Beneficial Reuse
disposal. Using TenCate Geotube® dewatering and containment technology and a proper chemical location Central America
conditioning regimen, a high solids content can be achieved with dewatered mine waste to create
stable structures including raising embankments, creation of dams, diversion dykes, and levees.
This effort helps drive sustainability initiatives in the industry. A new tailings storage facility (TSF) was
constructed to contain tailings and extend
From an economic perspective, the use of TenCate Geotube® containers can eliminate costly the lifetime of a mine located in a steep,
disposal of semi-liquid or paste waste by-products to the extent that waste streams can be mountainous region subject to severe
diverted into useful and safe products. These uses can include good quality, economically erosion. Geotube® containers were chosen
attractive alternative structural fill materials for use in construction projects. In many cases, to build debris detention structures within
mine waste will dewater without the need for polymer conditioning offering even greater savings. the TSF impoundment in the event of a
catastrophic water-related event from high
intensity rainfall.

The traditional engineering solution

would be to build a gabion wall, however
this would require the transport of rock
to the site and the removal of sections
of the LLDPE liner system. This posed a
considerable risk of allowing storm water
to get under the lining system leading to
erosion, risking future liner failure, and
could interrupt mine operations.

Geotube® dewatering and containment

technology allowed the mine to use existing
on-site materials to fill the Geotube®
containers. Coarse mine tailing slurry was
pumped into custom fabricated tubes which
fit into narrow areas of the TSF channel. Two
debris detention structures were constructed
with culvert systems underneath to limit the
water table behind the stacked Geotube®
structure to increase stability.

GEOSYNTHETICS | 6
Case Study Precious Metals Recovery
Precious metal recovery through heap leaching is an industrial mining process to extract precious
application Precious Metals Recovery metals, copper, uranium, and other compounds from ore via a series of chemical reactions that
location Nevada, USA absorb specific minerals and then re-separates them after their division from other earth materials.
Inherent in this process is the creation of slurries that need to be dewatered.

TenCate Geotube® dewatering and containment technology is well suited for 1) dewatering the
During routine pond liner inspection of this
waste stream from the precious metals recovery process such as barren solution ponds and 2)
gold mine’s barren pond (a pond containing
capturing of dewatered slurries that still contain precious metals so they can be reintroduced
a chemical solution waste from which
into the ore processing system.
the gold has been removed) and pregnant
pond (a pond containing solution which has
By capturing and containing valuable metals using TenCate Geotube® containers, the expense of
percolated through the ore on a heap leach
treating mine waste can be offset and become a valuable income stream.
where the solution is impregnated with the
gold and silver removed from the ore), it was
discovered the sludge had high gold content.
Geotube® technology was chosen to contain
and dewater the sludge, while capturing the
gold ore for reprocessing.

The metals recovery operation involved

using a submersible slurry pump to remove
the sludge from the barren and pregnant
ponds, pumping the sludge over the leach
pad to the dewatering cell. The Geotube®
containers were placed within the lined
heap leach pad drainage channel to capture Barren and pregnant ponds Capture of gold ore for reprocessing
sediment and gold ore present in the leach
pad drainage solution. The sludge was
chemically conditioned to aid in capturing
suspended solids and released clean
filtrate to be used as dilution water for the
polymer solution. The Geotube® recovery
process allowed the mine to capture the
dewatered gold ore for reprocessing prior
to the solution being discharged to the
combination pregnant/barren solution pond.

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Emergency and Disaster Management Case Study
When emergency situations or disaster strikes a mining operation, causing disruption of normal
tailings management, the economic impact can be severe. Having a simple, proven, effective application Emergencies
solution at hand is paramount. Utilizing TenCate Geotube® containment and dewatering
location Alabama, USA
technology to allow for continuous operation of mining activities, in a situation when traditional
methods are not viable, is often the preferred choice.
Waste slurry from raw coal processing is
Whether it be a natural disaster, a catastrophic event affecting tailing ponds, permit restrictions,
normally disposed of via surface
interruptions of mechanical dewatering processes, above or underground capacity limitations,
impoundments or injection into abandoned
or sudden increase in slurry production that strains the existing dewatering facility, TenCate
underground mine workings.
Geotube® containers, in a variety of sizes to fit almost all situations, are readily available to
restore tailings operations.
Due to new regulatory restrictions, available
area, and construction scheduling, a coal
mine was facing possible interruption of its
primary disposal method of underground
injection. The daily refuse was estimated
at 1.5 million gallons of slurry per day.
The mine needed to continue operations,
but conventional disposal methods were
not possible.

In order to maintain capacity in the surface

impoundment and continue operation,
the coal mine implemented Geotube®
containers to dewater the waste slurry in
Dewatering of waste slurry Reclaimed site after dewatering this emergency situation. An additional
benefit of Geotube® technology during this
project was the reclamation of land used as
the dewatering cells. Once dewatering and
consolidation of 200,000 cubic yards was
completed, the stacked Geotube® containers
were covered and the reclaimed site was
prepared for seed and mulch.

GEOSYNTHETICS | 8
Case Study Acid Mine Drainage
During the mining process sulfides can be exposed which, when they come in contact with water
application Acid Mine Drainage and air, can form sulfuric acid. This acid can and often does dissolve other harmful metals and
location Pennsylvania, USA metalloids in the surrounding rock. Acid mine drainage can occur anywhere on the mine where
sulfides are exposed to air and water -- including waste rock piles, tailings, open pits, underground
tunnels, and leach pads which can endanger local streams and groundwater. This can be a
problem at both active and abandoned mines.
During highway construction for I-99, over
700,000 cubic yards of excavated material The treatment process of an AMD waste with TenCate Geotube® dewatering technology is
was found to contain pyritic rock. Acid accomplished through the containment and dewatering of the precipitated solids. The dewatered
runoff from the pyritic rock endangered local solids can then be safely and economically disposed in an approved landfill site thus eliminating
streams and groundwater from the drainage an environmental problem.
of the contaminated materials. The slurry
material was concentrated in several holding
areas or storage lagoons.

Although other methods of handling the

AMD slurry were considered, TenCate
Geotube® dewatering technology was
selected based on its simplicity of operation,
cost, and lower consolidated volume when
the material needed transport off-site. The
dewatering process using TenCate Geotube ®

containers was optimized and designed

to handle the large volume of runoff, and
involved collecting and neutralizing the AMD sediment pond Geotube® dewatering cell
acid runoff in sediment ponds. Proper
chemical conditioning allowed the Geotube®
containers to filter the acid runoff (iron oxide)
and effluent was collected and used for
dilution water for polymer injection.

TenCate Geotube® dewatering technology

allowed for dewatering and containment of
the acid runoff, thus avoiding the need to
stockpile the AMD liquid slurry on-site.

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Specialty Applications Case Study
The very nature of mining and mineral processing operations are that no two locations are exactly
alike. Location, weather, topography, mining conditions, local and state regulations related to application Specialty Applications
water quality and tailings management are but a few of the challenges that operators must location Quebec, Canada
face. This requires a dewatering technology that is uniquely flexible to adapt to individual site
requirements to meet specific needs.
A gold mine was in search for a unique
TenCate Geotube® dewatering and containment technology is a simple, low tech solution ideal for
solution to improve the treatment of mine
remote or highly industrialized locations. TenCate Geotube® containers can be customized in size
water containing highly abrasive sediments.
and shape to meet almost any need. Whether an individual Geotube® unit is required to fit into an
Mine water is collected underground in a
underground gallery, or multiple, large tubes need to be stacked above ground to accommodate
sump and the solids at the bottom were
large volumes within a specific footprint; whatever the situation, TenCate can customize a
removed daily by a scoop tram. The abrasive
dewatering solution right for you
nature of the mine sediments created a
high maintenance cost to keep pumps
operational.

Custom fabricated Geotube® containers

were implemented and sized to fit within
existing mine galleries to allow the
underground application of a mine water
treatment system. Mine water with a high
level of TSS was pumped from the sump
to a Geotube® treatment system. This
dewatering process allowed the mining
operation to replace the former slurry pumps
Geotube® Mobile Dewatering System Geotube® V-bag with lower maintenance water pumps,
and the clear water is reused for mine
operations. The Geotube® treatment system
replaced a full time scoop tram with driver
and after consolidation, the dewatered
solids are reintroduced in the ore treatment
system. The mine water management costs
utilizing Geotube® dewatering technology
were reduced by more than 50% when
compared to the previous operation.

GEOSYNTHETICS | 10
TenCate develops and produces quality products that increase performance, reduce cost, and
deliver measurable results by working with our customers to provide advanced solutions.

TenCate Geosynthetics Asia Sdn Bhd TenCate Geosynthetics North America TenCate Geosynthetics Netherlands bv
14 Jalan Sementa 27/91 Seksyen 27 365 South Holland Drive Hoge Dijkje 2
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Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

www.tencategeosynthetics.com

TenCate Geotube® is a registered trademark of Royal Ten Cate. The information contained herein is to the best of our knowledge accurate, but since the circumstances and conditions in which it may be used are
beyond our control, we do not accept any liability for any loss or damage, however arising, which results directly or indirectly from use of such information nor do we offer any warranty or immunity against patent
infringement.

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