The Design, Construction and Operation of a Large Gold Tailings Storage Facility in North America

The second mill tailings storage facility for Barrick Gold Company's Goldstrike mine, known as the North Block Tailing Storage Facility, was designed in 1992 and the first stage constructed during 1993. The North Block (N.B.) facility was required to replace the first tailings facility, the AA Tailing Storage Facility, which was nearing capacity in 1993.
The North Block Tailings Facility is a permitted zero-discharge facility and was designed as a state-of-the-art facility with regard to containment systems. As discussed in more detail below, components of the facility include a composite liner system consisting of a 60-mil HOPE basin liner and compacted soil liner, underdrain system, embankment drains, and a piezometer monitoring system to monitor the hydraulic head on the liner system.
The Goldstrike mine orebody is one of the largest gold deposits in North America. At acquisition of the mine by Barrick in 1987, the reserve was 885,350 ounces. At the end of 2001, this had extended to 24.45 million ounces. The N.B. tailings storage facility layout was chosen to enable a minimum storage of 175 million tons at a stored dry density of 70 pcf to be stored on the site. The site is approximately one mile from the original autoclave mill and directly adjacent to the more recently constructed roaster facility.