AN engineer in Papua New Guinea has suggested a land-based waste processing plant to be used in the US$5 billion (K17.18bil) Wafi-Golpu mining project in Morobe.
Thomas Benguma, an engineer and waste management specialist, told a forum on the project in Lae last week that the plant would collect and recycle mining waste.
“There is an alternative waste disposal method which will be environmental-friendly and generate revenue,” he said.
“We are proposing a land-based mine tailings waste management option that seeks to not only manage waste, but go beyond waste management to mine tailings resource management where waste is processed into a resource material that can be further processed to recover precious metals still remaining in the tailings after the chemical extraction process.
“Mine tailings waste is a blessing in disguise.
“It is a resource that can be processed to derive value-added products.”
He said it was the latest trend in mine tailings waste management.
“New technologies have been developed to process all forms of waste and convert them into products that can be sold to generate revenue,” he said.
The first phase will involve processing tailings waste to produce resource material by separating the liquid and solid components of the tailings slurry.
The second phase is the processing of the tailings cake resource material to recover precious metals and by-products that can be sold.
“This plant will be erected close to Watut to process the tailings slurry.
“This of course will save money and reduce the water derived from the environment,” he said.
TheNational/PacificMiningWatch
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