Tailings Management and Optimisation Services
Tailings Solutions That Maximise Water Recovery, Storage Capacity and Mine Life
Complete Tailings Lifecycle Support
Rather than simply supplying equipment, Phibion partners with mining companies throughout the entire life of their Tailings Storage Facility.
Mining companies worldwide trust Phibion to optimise Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs) through innovative technologies, specialist engineering, and proven operational expertise.
Whether you're facing water shortages, limited storage capacity, tailings stability concerns, or closure challenges, Phibion delivers practical solutions that improve safety, reduce costs, and maximise the value of existing infrastructure.
Tailings Optimisation
Increase Capacity. Recover Water. Extend Mine Life.
Our Accelerated Mechanical Consolidation (AMC™) technology improves deposition efficiency by accelerating in-situ dewatering and consolidation.
Benefits include:
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Increased TSF storage capacity
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Reduced Rate of Rise
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Improved water recovery
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Enhanced tailings stability
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Extended asset life
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Reduced reliance on new infrastructure
Primary Technology
MudMaster® + AMC™
Geotechnical Investigation
Know Your Tailings Before You Build
Accurate geotechnical data is fundamental to safe tailings management.
Through CPT X™, Phibion delivers Cone Penetration Testing specifically engineered for extremely soft tailings where conventional methods often struggle.
Applications
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TSF investigations
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Dam raises
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Closure planning
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Tailings reprocessing
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Stability assessments
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Design validation
Tailings Closure & Rehabilitation
Plan for Closure from Day One
Successful mine closure begins during operations.
Phibion helps operators improve tailings strength and trafficability, enabling earlier rehabilitation while reducing long-term environmental liabilities.
Services include
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Closure planning
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Tailings strengthening
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Surface preparation
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Rehabilitation support
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Long-term stability improvement
Tailings Reprocessing Support
Unlock More Value from Existing Tailings
As more mines look to recover valuable minerals from historical deposits, Phibion helps prepare tailings for excavation and reprocessing.
Benefits
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Improve trafficability
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Increase strength
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Enable equipment access
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Recover additional water
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Support zero or reduced Rate of Rise strategies
Autonomous Tailings Operations
The Future of Tailings Management
DART™ introduces autonomous operation to tailings consolidation, improving productivity, consistency, and operator safety.
Features
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Remote operation
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Autonomous machine control
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Continuous optimization
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Reduced exposure
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Digital reporting
Tailings Monitoring
Real-Time Intelligence for Better Decisions
Phibion's Real-Time Density Sensor (RDS) continuously monitors tailings density without manual sampling, providing operators with instant operational insights.
Benefits
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Live density monitoring
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Improved operational control
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Better water management
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Increased safety
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Automated reporting
Home
Sustainability
Tailings storage facilities
What are tailings storage facilities
What are tailings and tailings storage facilities?
Tailings Storage Facility
Tailings are the left-over materials from the processing of mined ore. They consist of ground rock, unrecoverable and uneconomic metals, chemicals, organic matter and effluent from the process used to extract the desired products from the ore.
Tailings are stored in tailings storage facilities (TSFs). TSFs are dynamic structures that accommodate the leftover materials from the processing of mined ore.
There are different types of TSFs:
surface facilities, including paddock style or valley fills, which can comprise multiple dams (or cells) that have continuous, structurally similar interconnected walls
in-pit facilities
dry stack facilities
How do TSFs differ from conventional water dams?
The principal difference between TSFs and conventional water dams is that TSFs are constructed to maintain storage of waste material produced during mining operations, whereas water dams are typically built to store and release water. Also, TSFs are dynamic structures that often grow over the life of the mine to accommodate increasing tailings volume whereas water dams are typically erected in a single phase of work. The construction materials can also differ. TSFs are usually constructed from earth and rock waste materials from the mine, whereas water dams can be constructed from earth, rock, concrete and other materials.
Tailing storage facilities
There are three broad types of TSF construction, which are depicted below. The design choice is based on factors, including:
TSF location
site conditions (geology, seismicity, climatic conditions)
construction materials
tailings characteristics
Types of tailings storage facilities
Maintaining TSF integrity requires ongoing focus on appropriate engineering design, quality construction, ongoing operating discipline, maintenance, effective governance and independent reviews. In addition to design choice factors, internal and external factors that can influence TSF integrity include:
quality assurance and quality control of TSF construction
maintaining TSF operating discipline, including tailings characteristics, water management, monitoring and consideration of changes to any of these factors
Lifecycle of tailings storage facilities
TSFs evolve over their lifecycle, from planning, design, construction, operations, closure and ultimately to post closure. There may also be periods of care and maintenance between operational phases.
The duration of the closure phase in a TSF’s lifecycle can exceed the duration of the operational phase. The closure phase may include transition from operations to active care when tailings deposition ceases. Active care typically includes a continuation of water, geochemical and physical management processes that are designed to maintain TSF integrity. Over time, inactive TSFs may transition to passive care when the ongoing water, geochemical and physical management requirements are reduced or eliminated. Once a TSF has transitioned to passive care, additional works may be carried out to rehabilitate the site, such as earthworks and re-vegetation.