Underwater Placement of Mine Tailings: Case Examples and Principles

Ellis, Derek; Robertson, James D.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-59891-3_9

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Considerably more seabed impact and recovery information is available in 2000 from tailings disposal (Ellis and Robertson, 1999) than even 10 years ago. It should be possible at any projected marine mining site to develop cost-e cient methods of protecting other resource use.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Some Environmental Issues Affecting Marine Mining

Ellis¹

2001

Marine Georesources and Geotechnology

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This article reviews information recently available from existing marine and coastal mining for responses to environmental issues aVecting marine mining at diVerent depths. It is particularly but not exclusively concerned with those issues aVecting seabed biodiversity impact and recovery. Much information has been gathered in the past 10 years from shallow mining operations for construction aggregate, diamonds, and gold, from coastal mines discharging tailings to shallow and deep water, and from experimental deep mining tests. The responses to issues identiWed are summarized in a series of eight tables intended to facilitate site-speciWc consideration. Since impacts can spread widely in the surface mixing layer SML, and can aVect the biologically productive euphotic zone, the main issues considered arise from the depth of mining relative to the SML of the sea. Where mining is below the SML, the issue is whether it is environmentally better to bring the extraction products to the surface vessel for processing (and waste discharge), or to process the extraction products as much as possible on the seabed. Responses to the issues need to be site-speciWc, and dependent on adequate preoperational environmental impact and recovery prediction. For deep tailings disposal from a surface vessel, there are four important environmental unknowns: (1) the possible growth of``marine snow' ' (bacterial Xocs) utilizing the enormous quantities of Wne tailings particles (hundreds or thousands of metric tons per day) as nuclei for growth, (2) the possibility that local keystone plankton and nekton species may migrate diurnally down to and beyond the depth of deep discharge and hence be subjected to tailings impact at depth, (3) the burrow-up capability of deep benthos and their ability to survive high rates of tailings deposition, and (4) the pattern and rate of dispersion of a tailings density current through the deep water column from discharge point to seabed. Actions to obtain relevant information in general and site-speciWcally are suggested.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Some Environmental Issues Affecting Marine Mining

Ellis¹

2001

Marine Georesources and Geotechnology

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“…Coastal disposal sites are widely spread across North America (Canada, U.S.A.), South America (El Salvador, Chile), Northern Europe (Norway, Britain), Mediterranean (Spain, Turkey), Africa, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and Melanesia (Toga). Despite great expressed concern (Martinez-Frias 1997; Moran et al 2009), marine coastal deposition continues to be advocated in recent mining methods bulletins (Coldwell and Gensler 1993;Ellis and Robertson 1999;Younger 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and multispectral studies of disturbed Lake Superior coastal environments

Kerfoot

Yousef

Green

et al. 2012

Limnology & Oceanography

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Due to its high spatial resolution and excellent water penetration, coastal light detection and ranging (LiDAR) coupled with multispectral imaging (MSS) has great promise for resolving shoreline features in the Great Lakes. Previous investigations in Lake Superior documented a metal-rich ''halo'' around the Keweenaw Peninsula, related to past copper mining practices. Grand Traverse Bay on the Keweenaw Peninsula provides an excellent Great Lakes example of global mine discharges into coastal environments. For more than a century, waste rock migrating from shoreline tailings piles has moved along extensive stretches of coast, damming stream outlets, intercepting wetlands and recreational beaches, suppressing benthic invertebrate communities, and threatening critical fish breeding grounds. In the bay, the magnitude of the discarded wastes literally ''reset the shoreline'' and provided an intriguing field experiment in coastal erosion and spreading environmental effects. Employing a combination of historic aerial photography and LiDAR, we estimate the time course and mass of tailings eroded into the bay and the amount of copper that contributed to the metal-rich halo. We also quantify underwater tailings spread across benthic substrates by using MSS imagery on spectral reflectance differences between tailings and natural sediment types, plus a depth-correction algorithm (Lyzenga Method). We show that the coastal detail from LiDAR and MSS opens up numerous applications for ecological, ecosystem, and geological investigations.Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is an airborne laser-ranging technique that acquires high-resolution elevation and bathymetric data (Ackermann 1999). The data are collected with aircraft-mounted lasers capable of recording elevation measurements at a rate of 10-200-kHz pulses s 21 for above-water topographic stretches and 1-10-kHz for coastal bathymetric surveys, with a maximum vertical precision of 15 cm (Crow et al. 2007). In coastal surveys, the aircraft travels over a water stretch at about 60 m s 21 , pulsing two varying laser beams toward earth through an opening in the plane's fuselage: a red wavelength (infrared) beam that is reflected by the water surface and a narrow, blue-green wavelength beam that penetrates the water surface and is reflected from the bottom surface. The LiDAR sensor records the time difference between the two signals to derive measurements of water depth.An infrared version of LiDAR is used in forest applications, principally for biomass surveys and profiling of canopies (Lefsky et al. 1999). More recently, attention has expanded to underwater marine and freshwater applications. Under ideal conditions in coastal waters, blue-green laser penetration allows detection of structures down to depths approximately three times greater than passive light reflection. LiDAR has penetrated to a recorded maximum of 35 m in oceanic environments (Guenther 2007). Applications of blue-green laser techniques to mapping underwater structures have recently expanded. Marine s...

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“…Despite great expressed concern [55,56], marine coastal deposition continues to be advocated in recent mining bulletins [57][58][59] as a simple way of disposing of tailings. Advocacy utilizes the following arguments.…”

Section: Regional and Global Concerns About Coastal Tailing Dischargesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and Multispectral Scanner (MSS) Studies Examine Coastal Environments Influenced by Mining

Kerfoot

Hobmeier

Yousef

et al. 2014

IJGI

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There are numerous examples of past and present mine disposal into freshwater and marine coastal bays and riverine environments. Due to its high spatial resolution and extended water penetration, coastal light detection and ranging (LiDAR), coupled with multispectral scanning (MSS), has great promise for resolving disturbed shoreline features in low turbidity environments. Migrating mine tailings present serious issues for Lake Superior and coastal marine environments. Previous investigations in Lake Superior uncovered a metal-rich "halo" around the Keweenaw Peninsula, related to past copper mining practices. For over a century, waste rock migrating from shoreline tailing piles has moved along extensive stretches of coastline, compromising critical fish breeding grounds, damming stream outlets, transgressing into wetlands and along recreational beaches and OPEN ACCESS ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2014, 3 67 suppressing benthic invertebrate communities. In Grand (Big) Traverse Bay, Buffalo Reef is an important spawning area for lake trout and whitefish threatened by drifting tailings. The movement of tailings into Buffalo Reef cobble fields may interfere with the hatching of fish eggs and fry survival, either by filling in crevices where eggs are deposited or by toxic effects on eggs, newly hatched larvae or benthic communities. Here, we show that the coastal tailing migration is not "out of sight, out of mind", but clearly revealed by using a combination of LiDAR and MSS techniques.

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Underwater Placement of Mine Tailings: Case Examples and Principles

Cited by 9 publications

References 16 publications

A Review of Some Environmental Issues Affecting Marine Mining

A Review of Some Environmental Issues Affecting Marine Mining

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and multispectral studies of disturbed Lake Superior coastal environments

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and Multispectral Scanner (MSS) Studies Examine Coastal Environments Influenced by Mining

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