80 Reject waste as early as possible in the process through precision mining, ore upgrading, and reducing or eliminating water in processing. 3. Process Everything Derive value from the entire rock that has been extracted, and process all of it. 4. Transform Leaching Improve the cycle time and recoveries from leaching to help make it a viable alternative, with reduced waste and ability to target lower ore grades. 5. Recover through In-Situ Extraction Develop new approaches to extracting valuable minerals directly from the ore body without conventional mining methods, leaving waste behind. Mining companies can develop a portfolio of initiatives based on the above approaches, to start providing value today, and address the risks and constraints of the future. 2.1 Optimize Recovery There are several opportunities to improve recovery from waste. Firstly, tailings can be repurposed for creating valuable materials. This typically involves chemical and physical alterations to remove contaminants and change their physical attributes to make them suitable for use, such as in building materials. Three conditions must be met to create value: suitability of tailings materials for use, cost-effective treatment, and strong local or regional demand for such products. Tailings can also be reprocessed to recover valuable materials through chemical processing innovations. Mining companies should periodically review the potential for such recovery as technologies and economics may improve over time since the tailings were originally deposited, or future metals such as rare earth metals that might not have previously been considered valuable. Tailings can also provide for recovery of valuable salts or acids through chemical processes. Dewatering of tailings can help reclaim and recover water for further use. This can be achieved through physical mechanisms like conventional filtration and dewatering rolls, or chemical additives to agglomerate solids together in tailings to make them easier to target and remove. Specialized chemistries and physical changes to the pump-pipeline network can enable pumping of thicker slurries and pastes. When coupled with effective thickening technology, these innovations can allow for more complete dewatering in an energy efficient manner. Process water and acid mine drainage (AMD) can be treated through a range of technologies from membranes, thermal and non-thermal approaches, microbial systems, and chemical additives. Such solutions can also help recover valuable minerals in addition to the
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