Thermal conductivity of Meadowbank’s mine waste rocks and tailings

Vincent Boulanger-Martel, Andrée Poirier, Jean Côté, Bruno Bussière

In the proceedings of: GeoEdmonton 2018: 71st Canadian Geotechnical Conference; 13th joint with IAH-CNC

Session: Mining Geotechnics and Hydrogeology II

ABSTRACT: The thermal properties of insulation cover materials and their underlying mine wastes must be known in order to adequately design covers and predict their long-term thermal performance. This study used laboratory measurements and predictive models to assess the thermal conductivity of solid particles and the unfrozen / frozen thermal conductivity as a function of saturation for a non-potentially acid-generating waste rock unit, a potentially acid-generating waste rock unit, and tailings from Meadowbank mine. A predictive thermal conductivity model was calibrated to best represent the data obtained in the laboratory. Because no significant scale and structural effects on the thermal conductivity are observed for the waste rock units, the calibrated models can be extended to field conditions.

RÉSUMÉ: Les propriétés des matériaux des recouvrements isolants et des résidus et stériles miniers sous-jacents sont requises pour permettre une conception adéquate et pour prédire les performances thermiques stimatifs, la conductivité thermique des solides et la conductivité thermique non gelée / gelée en fonction de la saturation des résidus es non-potentiellement génératpotentiellement génératet de structure significatif sur la conductivité thermique n'ont été observé pour les unités de stériles miniers, les modèles calibrés peuvent être étendus aux conditions de terrain.

Access this article:
Canadian Geotechnical Society members can access to this article, along with all other Canadian Geotechnical Conference proceedings, in the Member Area. Conference proceedings are also available in many libraries.

Cite this article:
Vincent Boulanger-Martel; Andrée Poirier; Jean Côté; Bruno Bussière (2018) Thermal conductivity of Meadowbank’s mine waste rocks and tailings in GEO2018. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{geo2018Paper440,author = Vincent Boulanger-Martel; Andrée Poirier; Jean Côté; Bruno Bussière,title = Thermal conductivity of Meadowbank’s mine waste rocks and tailings ,year = 2018}