The development of paste technology has been similar around the world, from non-ferrous and gold mines to other kinds of metal mines. In recent years, paste technology has rapidly spread to iron mines. Iron ore deposits in China are usually irregular, fractural and of low grade. Therefore, the managers have to use large scale mining to reduce the mining cost per unit; large scale backfill systems are required for the safe operation of large scale extraction. Consequently, backfill systems with a large flow capacity are used in iron mines. The Lilou Iron Mine backfill capacity has reached 160-180m 3 /h with an annual mining production of 7.5 m t ore, the filling cost of which is CNY 18-30 per tonne of extracted ore. Paste or thickened tailings backfill is one of the latest technological advances in the mining industry (Jewell & Fourie 2006). Compared with other filling methods, the most extraordinary advantage of paste or thickened tailings is its high slurry concentration of generally more than 72%. Some paste can even reach 80-82% (concentrations are not the same for different types of tailings). Paste generally has the following characteristics (Potvin et al. 2005): It usually consists of mill tailings as the base component. Particles finer than 20 µm usually account for 15-20% by weight. Fine particles (5-10 mm) usually account 0-15%. Bleeding rate ranges from 3-5%; slump ranges from 23-25cm. Yield stress should be approximately 100-200 Pa. The paste backfill process includes four steps; tailings dewatering and thickening, materials mixing, pipeline transporting, stope barricade construction. For filling, whether it is thickened tailings or paste, it is best when it is in a state of slurry, as it can be delivered by gravity without segregating or bleeding in pipeline. 2 The route from the non-ferrous mine to the iron mine of backfill Backfill mining method, with outstanding advantages of high recovery and low dilution, is an effective control to reduce the environmental impact of the underground activities (Xia 2011). China commenced the trial of high concentration tailings backfill technology in Jinchuan (nickel) and Fankou lead mine in the 1980s, and a thickened tailings system in Donguashan Copper Mine in the 1990s. In the https://papers.acg.
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