Tailings and Mine Backfill Tailings and Mine Backfill Research in this area is aimed at Developing a water-free backfill paste using total tailings .
Tailings are the major by-products of the mining industry.
More than 500 million tonnes of tailings and waste rocks are produced annually in Canada. Some may pollute the environment due to acid generation. With the development of backfill technology in mining, part of these tailings has been used as backfill underground. While use of tailings as backfill has a number of advantages, it is very limited and has some technical difficulties at present. In hydraulic fill, only the coarse portion of tailings is used and there is excessive water to be decanted.