Figure 1 – Dewatering area – Pre Pilot Plant ● Mixing area. This area had a mobile crushing and waste rock classification station and a conveyor belt system with chutes (four belts) to mix the waste rock and tailings at the defined mixing ratios for subsequent stacking. Figure 2 – Mixing area – Pre Pilot Plant Satisfactory results were obtained regarding tailings dewatering, particularly with cyclone -screening dewatering, achieving an average moisture content of 15% and a 65% split. Likewise, the fines filtration process was also carried out, obtaining results like those obtained with whole tailings filtration. Besides, it was determined that four transfer points (chutes) are necessary to achieve mixture homogenization. Furthermore, as part of the development of the Pre Pilot Plant, segregation tests were conducted on slopes9 with characteristics like those of an existing waste dump (discharges were done using trucks of 20 m3). 3.2.2 Mesoscale columns Eighteen mesoscale columns were constructed to observe the long-term geotechnical and geochemical behavior of the waste rock-tailings mixtures. These mesoscale columns store pure M1 and M4 cycloned tailings (2), intrusive “A” and pure marble “C” waste rock (2), and 9 Areas of 5 m (width) x 10 m (height) and 37° (slope)
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