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Onterris believes tailings and mine waste management strategies must evolve to address water constraints, operational demands and long-term closure performance.
Tailings management is undergoing a fundamental transformation.
That’s Ljiljana Josic’s belief, and with nearly 30 years in the industry, this view carries weight.
As vice president of geotechnical, tailings and mine waste at global environmental consultant Onterris, Josic has seen the shift from mining companies in response to tighter water constraints, complex ore bodies, challenging climatic conditions and increasing expectations for long-term environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance.
Within this environment, conventional slurry tailings storage may not always represent the optimal solution.
Instead, Josic said companies are looking beyond traditional containment approaches toward systems that reduce water dependency, improve physical stability, enhance operational flexibility and support progressive reclamation.
Depending on site conditions, the appropriate strategy may involve filtered tailings, thickened tailings, paste technology, underground or pit backfill, conventional storage or a combination of these approaches.
“The important question should always be which tailings deposition technology will perform best for the specific site conditions,” Josic said.
“The use of filtered tailings is one response to current demands, which represents a significant change in how mines manage both solids and water.”
Rather than transporting large volumes of slurry to a conventional tailings storage facility, tailings are dewatered through filtration and transported to the selected location, placed, compacted and progressively reclaimed.
Josic said this can fundamentally change the configuration and operating philosophy of a tailings facility.
Filtered tailings can reduce water storage, increase water recovery and recycling, and improve geotechnical and operational resilience.
They can also reduce dependence on large water-retaining embankments and improve adaptability in water-scarce regions and extreme climatic conditions.
However, filtered tailings are not a universal solution.
The viability of this option, according to Josic, depends on various factors, including ore mineralogy, tailings characteristics, production rates, climate, available energy, filtration performance, transportation distances, stacking requirements, water balance and site conditions.
The economics and environmental performance can also change significantly over the life of a mine.
“One of the major drivers for filtered tailings is improved water recovery,” Josic said.
“As water becomes more and more strategic to mining operations, water management should no longer be treated simply as an environmental consideration.
“It should be embedded directly into tailings design, mine planning, operational decision-making and closure strategy.”
Throughout the lifecycle, water recovery can positively influence factors such as regulatory permitting, process reliability, operating costs, site water balance and long-term closure outcomes.
Josic said it is important to highlight that even when tailings are filtered and stacked, the resulting conditions on site remain dynamic in terms of geotechnical stability and water management.
Performance continues to be influenced by moisture content, degree of compaction, placement methods, stack geometry, drainage performance, pore pressures, settlement, erosion and climatic conditions.
As with any other tailings disposal technology, the selection and implementation of a filtered tailings option depends on data and the integration of multiple disciplines.
The suitability and performance of the system, according to Josic, is influenced by geotechnical engineering, tailings and mine-waste management, hydrogeology, hydrology, process engineering, geology, geochemistry, mine operations and closure planning.
Technological advancements are also supporting the future of tailings management with intelligent, integrated and adaptive mine-waste management solutions.
Advances in digital mining technologies and analytics are providing continuous insight into facility performance and can support predictive decision-making.
Josic said these capabilities are shifting mine-waste management toward being a more integrated system.
“The next generation of mine-waste management will increasingly combine engineering, technology, data and operational intelligence,” Josic said.
“Filtered tailings represent one of the most promising innovations available to the mining industry today, particularly in regions where water conservation, risk reduction and long-term sustainability are key drivers.”
However, Josic said the true value of this approach is realised when it is integrated into a broader mine-waste management framework that considers the entire life cycle of the operation.
This requires moving beyond designing a tailings facility as a stand-alone structure and instead considering tailings, waste rock, water, geotechnical conditions, processing, operations and closure as interconnected components.
“The future of mining will be defined by how efficiently resources are extracted and by how responsibly waste is managed,” Josic said.
“The industry has an exciting opportunity to evolve mine-waste management from a disposal challenge to a strategic system requiring continuous optimisation, informed decision-making, and long-term stewardship from project conception through closure and post-closure.”
This feature appeared in the November 2026 edition of Australian Mining.