Mineral heavy mine tailings are often challenging to refine and transport for disposal. Geofabrics have a range of solutions for Drainage, Dewatering, Channels and Spillways
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Dewatering for Tailings
DEWATERING TAILINGS AND CONTAMINANTS
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Dewatering Sludge
DEWATERING SLUDGE FROM PONDS AND WATERWAYS
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Channel Lining
HYDRAULIC WORKS, SPILLWAYS AND CHANNEL LINING
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Drainage for Tailings
DRAINAGE SOLUTIONS IN TAILINGS AND WASTE
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Road and Rail drainage
Roadside and Rail formation Drainage
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Embankment Drainage
Embankment Drainage

Geofabrics expertise in Drainage, Dewatering, Channels and Spillways

Drainage is critical to all major infrastructure on the minesite, particular as environmental obligations are becoming more stringent for waste and tailings storages, automation is leading to increased performance of roads, rail and ROM infrastructure, and progressive rehabilitation must ensure minimal erosion and sediment movement within and leaving the site footprint.
For waste and tailings storages key drainage systems maximise the storage volumes of waste but also allow maximum water recovery for reuse.
Roadside drains increase the longevity of roads and rail insfrastructure, and well designed drains fa key component of any capping/sealing system as it reduces hydraulic head above the liner and prevents build up of gas pressure below the liner. This has traditionally been achieved using gravel drainage blankets which are costly and difficult to construct. New synthetic technology has provided lightweight, high quality, high efficiency alternatives to engineers and asset-owners.

Disposal of waste can be a costly exercise, particularly where fine grained materials which have a high moisture content are concerned. These materials often require large evaporation ponds or costly belt press systems to remove the moisture and allow effective containment. A cost-effective alternative is to make use of geosynthetic dewatering systems.
 

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Dewatering Contaminants

Dewatering Tailings and Contaminants

For new tailings construction, the use of Geosynthetic Dewatering treatment of waste and tailings can maximise the retention of solids over wet sludges that present high environmental risk but cause inefficient storage of water.

TenCate Geotube® enables the start up miner to generate a return prior to full tailings dam construction by allowing processing of ore and containment of the tailings sludge to meet environmental obligations prior to full dam construction.

For operating waste facilities, when a waste storage facility has reached capacity, environmental concerns by breaches of freeboard requirements will lead to environmental penalties. A TenCate Geotube® can be used to remove water from storage facilities and maximise solids content to increase volume capability. The Geofabrics GRID laboratory is critical to demonstrate additives that enable maximum solids retention and achieve polishing of the water to meet environmental obligations. 

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FEATURED PRODUCTS

TenCate Geotube® Sludge Dewatering

TenCate Geotube® dewatering tubes, sometimes known as geobags, are used for sludge dewatering projects of all sizes and there is good reason - simplicity and low cost.

There are no belts, gears, or complicated mechanics. TenCate Geotube® containers use an engineered textile that is designed for dewatering of high moisture content sludge and sediment. They are available in many sizes, depending on your volume and space requirements and have a demonstrated history for tailings, sediment ponds and critical applications.

Geotextile Filtration - Geofabrics bidim / Texcel

Geofabrics bidim nonwoven geotextiles have a three-dimensional structure designed to improve drainage performance. Ideal for use in subsoil drainage systems, provide excellent filtration and features a strong three-dimensional structure with high elongation.

Texcel geotextiles are a new generation of nonwoven staple fibre geotextiles. Manufactured from either Polyester and/or Polypropylene fibres, they have a unique staple fibre blend and an inbuilt flexibility to allow Engineers to specify mechanical and hydraulic criteria to suit tough environmental conditions.

Wick Drains for stability

Wick drains are designed to speed up the consolidation of compressible soils by providing shorter flow paths for water contained in the soil. As the soil consolidates its strength improves which will allow higher loading from larger stockpiles. The use of wick drains can reduce consolidation times from years to months.

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Dewatering

Dewatering Sludge from Ponds and Waterways

Sludge is generated by surface water flows across the footprint of the mine site. The options to prevent this begin by the introduction of sediment controls, but often sediment ponds generate large amounts of sediments that make them inefficient and observe a loss of design function. Dewatering serves the following purposes:

  • Reduces volume, saving money on storage and transportation.
  • Generates polished water for reprocessing or dust control functions.
  • Generates high solids waste containment that facilitates tailings repurpose.
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FEATURED PRODUCT

TenCate Geotube® Sediment Dewatering

TenCate Geotube® dewatering technology removes water from solid or semi-solid material, including mineral wastes, slurries and sludges. The dewatering containers can be custom-sized to the application, placed in available space between other structures, and removed once dewatering is complete. In some cases, conditioners or polymers are used to promote flocculation to increase dewatering rate, improve solids retention and filtrate quality. Volume reduction can be as much as 90%, with high solid levels that make removal and disposal easy.

In industries such as mining and mineral processing, power and utility, pulp and paper and other industries that produce sludge, TenCate Geotube® dewatering technology enables the recovery of valuable materials, provides structural stability, improves water quality, and reduces storage footprint. It’s one of the most versatile, low-carbon footprint dewatering technologies available for a variety of industries and one of the most effective – and recent developments have seen Geotube dewatering systems used on many, large scale projects as the largest tubes can container over 3,000m3 of dewatered cake solids.

TenCate Geotube® dewatering containers are supplied to site and placed into position. Sludge which is treated with specialist polymers is then pumped into the containers and the clear effluent water is then drained leaving the solid remains within the container. TenCate Geotube® containers use an engineered textile that is designed for dewatering of high moisture content sludge and sediment. They are available in many sizes, depending on your volume and space requirements.

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Channel Lining

Hydraulic Works, Spillways and Channel Lining

The options for hydraulic works in channels are surface treatments that prevent surface erosion of sediments. The options begin with short term surface treatments, and can scale up to Maccaferri Reno and Gabion systems that can handle the highest channel velocities.

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FEATURED PRODUCTS

Synthetic Erosion Mats

Grassroots is an erosion control matting designed to protect underlying soil in steep slopes and channels from moderate to high velocity water flows, rain splash and other erosive conditions, while allowing seeds to germinate successfully and grow through the matting providing permanent vegetative reinforcement. Grassroots is made in Australia by Geofabrics from heavy synthetic UV stabilised fibres which are needle punched together into a tight open weave synthetic scrim that allows maximum surface sediment retention while facilitating maximum revegetation potential in extreme environmental conditions.

FUNCTION: Grassroots is a long term erosion control matting designed to protect underlying soil in steep slopes and channels from moderate to high velocity water flows, rain splash and other erosive conditions, while allowing seeds to germinate successfully and grow through the matting providing permanent vegetative reinforcement

Concrete Canvas

Concrete Canvas® is part of a revolutionary new class of construction materials called Geosynthetic Cementitious Composite Mats (GCCMs). It is a flexible, concrete impregnated fabric, that hardens on hydration to form a thin, durable, water proof and fire resistant concrete layer. Essentially, it’s concrete on a roll. Concrete Canvas® GCCM (CC) allows concrete construction without the need for plant or mixing equipment: just add water.

CC can be rapidly unrolled to form a ditch or channel lining. It is significantly faster, easier and less expensive to install than conventional concrete channel lining and requires no specialist equipment. The matting can be laid at a rate of 200m²/hour by a 3 person team

Maccaferri Reno Mattresses

Maccaferri Gabion baskets are rectangular wire mesh cages manufactured from double twisted hexagonal mesh that are site filled with hard durable rock to form an earth retaining structure. Maccaferri Gabions can be stepped, vertical or battered to suit your project. They offer an environmentally friendly alternative with low installation costs.

Maccaferri Gabions

Maccaferri Gabion baskets are rectangular wire mesh cages manufactured from double twisted hexagonal mesh that are site filled with hard durable rock to form an earth retaining structure. Maccaferri Gabions can be stepped, vertical or battered to suit your project. They offer an environmentally friendly alternative with low installation costs.

Geoweb Channels

The Geoweb system consists of a robust three-dimensional structure housing a network of interconnected cells that confine and compact soil. The confinement action prevents erosion and improves the structural performance of the soil or aggregate infill providing an alternative to reinforced concrete or armour.

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Geotube

Drainage Solutions in Tailings and Waste

Geofabrics offers comprehensive lining systems comprising our Australian made Geosynthetic Clay Liner (GCL), Elcoseal and Coolguard, specialty geomembranes designed for applications in extreme chemistry. Our solutions also include cushion geotextiles for liner protection including Texcel and bidim at a fraction of the cost of a sand protection layer.

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FEATURED PRODUCTS

Drainage Geocomposite

A Drainage Geocomposite can be used to capture groundwater volumes below the lining system, and drain tailings liquor heads acting on the basal lining system. The choice of Geonet is critical due to the high stresses in tailings applications and waste dams, and will depend on the load condition and flow volume required. The Geofabrics GRID Laboratory has a designated Transmissivity Test rig to test Geonets under project stresses and has written key technical papers in this space. In conjunction with the Geonet, the selection of Filter Geotextile must be critically designed and tested to establish maximum through flow and ensure maximum solids retention to prevent clogging of fine particles into the Geonet system.

Geofabrics Megaflo Primary Drainage

Megaflo® flat drainage pipe provide high crush strength conduits capture both groundwater below the lining system and function as the primary tailings drainage system. The advantage of the flat panel system is that it requires shallow subgrade trenches for groundwater capture, but also can be installed directly onto the liner to enable maximum drainage performance. 

Megaflo® is an excellent drainage system, removing water from your structure faster than any other drainage system. The shape and structure of Megaflo® provides a high crush resistance in aggregate whether the drainage system is used vertically or horizontally. Megaflo® Ultra, is a very high strength Megaflo® product, designed for use under excessive loads, such as very deep tailings dams. Megaflo® Ultra is supported by FEA modelling to demonstrate it can withstand applied loads of beyond 1000kPa when used in conjunction with the right drainage aggregate.

Geofabrics bidim C Leak Detection

For design of Polymeric Geomembranes, the leakage rate is designed based on the amount of holes per Hectare. As a result, the detection of holes is critical to understand long term leak performance of the liner. Geofabrics bidim C Range nonwoven geotextile is the World’s first commercial conductive geotextile made possible with imgne® X3 geotextile graphene technology. Geofabrics bidim C Range offers an effective, lower cost means for designers and installers of lining systems to undertake liner integrity surveys in newly constructed containment projects.

The Geofabrics Technical Team can provide advice as to the best techniques to enable leak detection. Geofabrics bidim C uses graphene technology to offer an effective, lower cost means for designers and installers of lining systems to undertake liner integrity surveys in newly constructed containment cells.

The technology built into bidim C Range only requires overlap of the geotextile to deliver the conductivity required for pin hole detection in a membrane layer above using standard liner integrity survey equipment. There is no welding required and the geotextile does not contain any wires - meaning installation does not require special skills or equipment. Just roll it out with approximately 100 mm overlap on all edges. The Geofabrics GRID laboratory can assist with the right solution to implement critical leak detection for your application.
 

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Tailings open pit

Roadside and Rail Formation Drainage

Good road drainage is a primary factor in maintaining road serviceability. Geofabrics Megaflo® drainage system is a cheaper alternative to traditional roadside drainage systems. Geofabrics Megaflo® halves the installation time required for traditional methods and only requires a narrow trench, so installation and material costs are significantly reduced. 

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Featured Products

Geofabrics Megaflo®

Megaflo® is widely used in critical applications, because of its high compressive strength under mining loads and high flow velocity means less risk of siltation. It can be used with site sands rather than costly drainage aggregate when designed correctly. 

The Geofabrics Mining Technical Hub and GRID Laboratory has extensive experience in critical design parameters that can assist with the right Megaflo Pipe and Geotextile choice to maximise performance on your specific site.
 

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Embankment Drainage

Embankment Drainage

Road and embankment construction over soft ground will often lead to release of groundwater that can impact structural performance.

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Featured Products

Geofabrics bidim or High-Strength Geotextile Drainage Blankets

The use of Geofabrics bidim nonwoven or TenCate High Porosity Geotextiles enclosing a granular drainage layer will relieve pore water pressure, and enable linear consolidation over time. The choice of a nonwoven bidim or High Strength Woven is critical to enable a geotextile structure that resists mechanical damage, but has superior filtration performance. The choice of Geotextile is designed to the damage potential of aggregate available, with specific filter properties for site soils. The Geofabrics GRID Technical Hub can provide historic expertise and review the opportunity to test with site specific materials in this regard

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