Seepage, Solute transport and Strain-stress Analysis of Ashele Tailings Dams

Abstract: This master thesis has been conducted through cooperation between Elforsk, Uppsala University and Tsinghua University in Beijing. Ashele Tailings Dam, located in Haba Town, Xianjing Province, China, is designed and used for high sulphur tailings. Because of a new mineral separation technique, the dam is now also being filled with low sulphur tailings. Since the dam was not originally designed for the new tailings materials, the seepage and stress-strain analyses of the dam need to be re-evaluated and refined. The Ashele Ltd. is also planning on building a new dam to meet its growing need for tailings deposit capacity. This dam will be used for the new low sulphur tailings and a thorough analysis of the dam will have to be performed.The purpose of this thesis is to re-evaluate the analyses of the seepage and stress-strain in the old dam and to perform the same type of analyses on the newdam. Numerical analyses of the seepage, solute transport and strain-stress in the dam are performed, using the physical and mechanical properties of the tailings materials. It is shown, that the construction of the new tailings dam, will have a good effect on the seepage and therefore also solute transport. The results also show that theseepage, solute transport, stress and deformation are depending on the amount ofwater in the tailings pond and that a lower water level has a positive effect on all thestudied variables.