Application of acoustic profiling to study sedimentation processes in a tailings disposal dam

The production process of some minerals, such as iron and zinc, requires grinding and washing stage to be performed to separate the valuable material from the not useful fraction. The solution encountered to treat the resulting fluidized waste is to dispose it in an artificial basin, often located along a stream valley closed by a retention dam. Such waste is composed by a mixture of residual minerals of grain size and composition depending on the origin of the mineral and the separation process.<br>The present paper describes the application of highresolution acoustic profiling to the study of sedimentation process in a zinc metallurgy disposal site. A 10kHz subbottom profiler was used to detect the original topography of the basin and observe the structure of the depositional process. As ancillary result, an estimate of the volume of waste fluid was given.