South Africa has a significant number of legacy tailings storage facilities (TSFs) which were developed during periods of far less stringent legislation which was later developed to protect communities, the environment and the national water resource. These facilities were designed and often constructed on dolomitic foundations which allowed for natural drainage which promoted consolidation, improving stability of the facility.

Mineral processing technologies of the time were far less efficient than what is available today. These legacy facilities still contain sufficient resources to allow for reprocessing to extract further value, but at mining costs far lower than for normal mining operations.  Further, these facilities were often not rehabilitated to modern standards.

Coupled with communities living in close proximity to the facilities, the negative health impacts and ongoing pollution of natural resources creates ever increasing risks to these communities.As conventional mining becomes harder and more costly to operate, reprocessing of these legacy facilities have become a popular avenue for mining companies to derive more value from these facilities.

These facilities would be remined responsibly, reprocessed and the resulting tailings then being disposed of on a TSF designed to modern standards, which requires a robust design with the aim of zero harm to humans and the environment. Once these old facilities have been fully mined out, the re-mining footprints become available for redevelopment.

Typical uses include light industrial developments, or farming of non-edible products. These allow for job opportunities for the surrounding communities, while improving their quality of life owing to improved environmental conditions and better health.  The modern facility is designed, constructed and operated to modern standards.

They are designed with their end-of-life use in mind. Applying concurrent rehabilitation further limits the potential for environmental pollution. The regulatory environment in South Africa has seen significant growth over the last few decades. It remains a challenging environment to navigate successfully to ensure compliance to often contradicting regulations and requirements.Sustainable mining development specialists Knight Piésold (KP) offers the full suite of services to assist clients to successfully and efficiently develop TSFs in full compliance with local regulations, while complying to international standards such as the Global Industry Standard for Tailings Management (GISTM). It should be noted that KP was 

integral to the redrafting of the SANS 10286 Code of Practice for Mine Residue to align local standards to the GISTM. KP also starts a design with the end in mind, thereby ensuring integrated life of mine closure planning in line with best practice such as the International Council on Mining and Metals Good Practice Guide.