Protection of common natural goods is one of the greatest challenges man faces every day. Extracting and processing natural resources such as mineral deposits contributes to the transformation of the natural environment. The number of activities designed to keep balance are undertaken in accordance with the concept of integrated order. One of them is the use of comprehensive systems of tailings storage facility monitoring. Despite the monitoring, system failures still occur. The quantitative aspect of the failures illustrates both the scale of the problem and the quantitative aspect of the consequences of tailings storage facility failures. The paper presents vast possibilities provided by the global monitoring in the effective prevention of these failures. Particular attention is drawn to the potential of using multidirectional monitoring, including technical and environmental monitoring by the example of one of the world's biggest hydrotechnical constructions-Żelazny Most Tailings Storage Facility (TSF), Poland. Analysis of monitoring data allows to take preventive action against construction failures of facility dams, which can have devastating effects on human life and the natural environment.
The article presents test results on the use of the flat dilatometer test (DMT) to evaluate changes in undrained shear strength su in soils of various origins. Reference values for the undrained shear strength calculated with Marchetti’s original formula were su values obtained from the piezocone penetration tests. The tests were conducted at eight investigation sites in Poland, where five groups of soils were separated: loess-deluvial, loess-deluvial cemented, young till, aged till, and Pliocene clay. The soils exhibited varied overconsolidation effects. The study results revealed that the factors influencing the relationship between undrained shear strength and the KD coefficient from DMT test were various because of the origin, grain size distribution of the soils and cementation. In order to include the influence of overconsolidation and grain size distribution in calibration of su from DMT, a modified KD1 coefficient was introduced into the formula describing this relationship. The final solution was obtained with multiple linear regression. A relatively high statistical evaluation of this relationship was determined for aged till and deluvial and uncemented loess.
Economic development stimulated by the increased demand for production of consumer goods and the growing human population result in increasing the amounts of various wastes, including tailings. Mining industry in Poland, comprising also mining of non-ferrous metal ores, is a strategic branch of the national economy and, at the same time, a leading waste producer. Tailings management is a significant problem both in Poland and worldwide. Frequently, considerable amounts of wastes are accumulated in mine spoil tips, in areas not always suitable for their deposition, thus leading to the degradation of the surrounding environment. At the huge volume of produced wastes their rational and economically viable management is becoming crucial. On the other hand, depletion of natural aggregate deposits is an important incentive to search for substitutes, which would be suitable for the development of road infrastructure or which could be used in earth structure engineering to construct hydroengineering objects. Since no profitable recovery technologies are available at present, tailings generated by copper mining are deposited in tailings storage facilities. The largest and at the same time the only currently operating facility in Poland is the Żelazny Most Mining Tailings Storage Facility, belonging to KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. The paper presents criteria for material quality and density imposed on the material embedded in the static core of the tailings pond dam. For this purpose studies were conducted to confirm applicability of sorted tailings as a material for the construction of earth structures.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.