Assessor Resource
PMAOPS560A
Plan and design tailings management facilities
Assessment tool
Version 1.0
Issue Date: May 2024
This unit applies to a person who has the responsibility for the planning and design of a company’s tailings waste management system or the planning and design of tailings specific disposal sites from the early stage metalliferous processes. This would include the planning and design of an environmental management system focused on continual improvement to review, prevent, mitigate or ameliorate adverse environmental impacts and which will provide for the safe storage and disposal of residual wastes and process residues. The type of people to whom this unit may apply include (but are not limited to):
environmental department manager/officer
occupational health and safety manager/officer
operations manager/officer
site maintenance manager/officer
inspection and monitoring manager/officer
frontline manager.
This unit applies to an individual working alone or as part of a team or group and working in liaison with other shift team members and the control room operator, as appropriate.
This unit applies where the activities of a metals or minerals processing plant produces waste in the form of tailings (e.g. slag and slurry) or wastewater.
This unit requires a detailed knowledge about the characteristics of tailings (particularly as they will occur in regard to the facility for which the tailings waste management system is being planned and designed), the design of the tailings management facility, methods of tailings disposal and deposition and associated equipment, water balance issues and environmental risks. Understanding of related processes and plant procedures which produce tailings would be beneficial.
This unit has been written with a focus on early stage metal beneficiation processes in mind, particularly in regard to processes associated with aluminium, iron, gold, copper, tin, sliver, lead and zinc. Tailings management facilities may have deposited material suspended in varying levels of water ranging from slurry (e.g. ‘red mud’), through high slump pastes (e.g. filter cake) to low slump pastes, but the focus has been on sub-aerial deposition (not subaqueous or sea deposition). While not specifically considered, the unit should also be applicable to other types of waste that might be deposited in a tailings management facility, including overburden and possibly slag or other solid waste products from later metalliferous processes with appropriate contextualisation.
This unit of competency covers the skills and knowledge needed to plan and design the management of tailings disposals and disposal sites; risk identification and management strategies (business and environmental); and responses to threats to tailings site integrity.
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