Safety Evaluation of the Zhaoli Tailings Dam : A seepage, deformation and stability analysis with GeoStudio

Sammanfattning:  The mining industry produce large amount of mine waste, also called tailings, which must be kept in tailings dams. In this thesis the safety and stability of a tailings dam have been studied, where some of the tailing material is being used as filling material. The dam has been modelled and simulated using the software Geostudio. To evaluate the safety and stability of the dam seepage, stress and strain as well as slope stability have been simulated with SEEP/W, SIGMA/W and SLOPE/W, which are different modules in the Geostudio software. The results show that the dam is stable for all tested scenarios. However, in this thesis many simplifications and assumptions have been made so it is recommended to do a more detailed study to confirm the safety of the dam. The dam should also be simulated for earthquakes before a definite evaluation can be made. This master thesis has been conducted in cooperation with Vattenfall AB, Energiforsk AB, Uppsala University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The project has been carried out on the planned Zhaoli ditch tailing dam in the Shanxi Province, China.