Use of copper mine tailings as paste backfill material in mining operations - Approach to minimise land occupation?

In modem society copper is widely recognised as an important raw material. In 2000 total copper production amounted to 13,2 Mio t and it is expected to increase in the next years. On the other hand copper ore mining has severe impacts on the environment like acid mine drainage or land use due to tailings disposal. A possible solution to minimise these effects could be the application of mining methods with paste backfill. In a project funded by the German Federal Institute of Geosciences and Natural Resources the Institute of Mining Engineering at the Aachen University of Technology, Germany, modelled a conversion of ore production from mining methods without backfilling either underground or open pit to a mining method with backfill and analysed the impact on copper market and world market price. The paper gives a short review on copper mining. Then a description of the paste backfill plant model and the resultant backfill mining method will be given. A cost estimation for the solution and the different influences on the environment are discussed with regard to the effect on the world copper price and world demand.