Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

In this paper, a water balance model and a water quality model were constructed to quantitatively analyze the impact of seepage water from a tailings pond on the downstream surface water quality, and to provide a basis for the construction of the seepage control facilities. First, a two-dimensional seepage analysis of the tailings dam was conducted, and the calculated seepage was used in the water balance and water quality models. Then the water balance model and water quality model of the tailings facility were established to simulate the water quality of the tailings seepage water, surplus water in the pond and downstream river water under different schemes, i.e. with or without seepage control facilities. By comparing and analyzing the results of water quality prediction, it shows that the leakage of tailings pond has a significant impact on the water quality of downstream river, and it is recommended that a horizontal seepage control scheme for the whole facility should be adopted, with HDPE geomembrane liner installed on the upstream embankment, and a 1m thick soil liner over the basin and side slopes of the facility, and the basin soil liner should be well compacted to reach a permeability of 10-5~10-6cm/s, and the width of the tailings beach should be greater than 200m, and the cleaner and rougher tailings should be discharged separately, with cleaner tailings kept submerged.