Waste Rock Facility Closure Planning and Monitoring

Location

Nevada, USA

Client

Barrick Goldstrike Mines

Project Description

GSA designed and conducted a series of field and laboratory tests to determine the hydraulic properties of borrow material planned for use as a store and release cover at a 2,000 acre waste rock facility. The hydraulic properties of borrow material from existing reclaimed areas and in-pit borrow areas were characterized in-situ and in large diameter laboratory columns. Field and laboratory results were integrated to determine representative hydraulic properties for the range of available cover material for cover design modeling with VADOSE/W.

In addition, GSA designed and installed seven cover performance monitoring stations to monitor the performance of the store and release cover systems under various site-specific environmental conditions such as material type, slope and aspect. Monitoring is ongoing.

Project Highlights