1250 DRY STACKING UNDER ARCTIC CONDITIONS: LIMITATIONS, POSSIBILITIES AND REQUIREMENTS FOR CLIMATE-RESILIENT AND CIRCULAR TAILINGS MANAGEMENT *M.A. Alva1, S. Luukkanen1, H. Vehviläinen1 1Oulu Mining School, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland, (*Presenting author: max.alva@student.oulu.fi) ABSTRACT As the mining industry transitions toward sustainable and low-water operations, dry stacking has emerged as a key pathway for responsible tailings management. By maximizing water recovery and minimizing environmental risk, it offers a practical route toward the broader vision of waterless mine-to-mill operations. Yet, in Arctic and sub-Arctic environments, the successful implementation of dry stacking remains limited by extreme climatic variability and a lack of long-term operational data. This paper presents an updated theoretical review of the limitations, possibilities and requirements of dry stacking under Arctic conditions, building on the framework introduced in “Towards Waterless Operations from Mine to Mill”. The analysis integrates industrial insights and scientific literature to examine dewatering efficiency, rheology control and the stability of dry-stacked tailings in freezing environments. The review highlights several limitations: reduced filtration performance at low temperatures, freeze–thaw cycles that modify tailings structure and increased operational uncertainty due to the accelerating impacts of climate change, including thawing permafrost, higher average temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events. At the same time, possibilities emerge from integrating circular economy concepts and low-carbon technologies. Water and heat recovery, renewable energy use in dewatering, and the potential recovery of critical minerals or reuse of tailings as construction materials can transform dry stacking into a core enabler of resource-efficient operations. Rather than presenting new field data, this work provides a practical conceptual basis for evaluating dry stacking under Arctic conditions by linking climatic constraints with key technical performance parameters. Its practical value lies in synthesizing indicative design windows and assessment variables, such as moisture content, layer thickness, material strength, drainage requirements and water recovery, as a structured, decision-support-oriented framework for Arctic and sub-Arctic dry stacking. The paper therefore aims not only to review current knowledge, but also to support early-stage screening and design of climate-resilient, low-water and circular tailings systems for northern mining regions. KEYWORDS Dry stacking; Arctic mining; climate resilience; circular economy; tailings dewatering; critical minerals recovery; waterless mine-to-mill 1. INTRODUCTION Tailings management has become a central topic in the transition toward more sustainable and lowwater mining. High-profile dam failures, tightening regulations and growing societal concern over environmental risks have accelerated the search for safer and more water-efficient solutions (UNEP, 2019; Kossoff et al., 2014; Lottermoser, 2010). In parallel, many operations are moving into regions where water is scarce or hydrological regimes are highly variable, making conventional slurry tailings ponds increasingly difficult to justify from both risk and resource perspectives. Dry stacking of filtered tailings has therefore gained attention as a promising alternative that minimizes stored water volumes, improves geotechnical stability and enables higher rates of water recovery back to the process plant. In cold and northern climates, these tailings challenges are amplified. Arctic and sub-Arctic regions are warming two to four times faster than the global average and are expected to experience more frequent extreme precipitation events, shifts in snow and melt patterns and thawing of permafrost (IPCC, 2021–2023). These changes directly affect the performance and safety of tailings facilities, including those based on filtered tailings and dry stacking. Freeze–thaw cycles, snow accumulation, rapid spring melt and intense
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