Geotechnical properties of cemented paste backfill from Cannington Mine,Australia

Paste fill is the newest form of backfill material in the spectrum available to international mines and is made from full mill tailings. Tailings have an effective grain size of approximately 5 μm and are combined with a small portion of binder and water to make paste. It is deposited into the voids created by mining which are referred to as stopes. The empty voids are approximated as vertical rectangular prisms, with plan dimensions of 15–40 m and heights of 100 m or more. Backfilling of mined stopes provide an increased level of local and regional stability to the ore body, as well as providing a suitable and economic dump of mining related waste. Paste is a relatively new technology in the mining industry and a review of the physical properties and mechanical fill behaviour was considered pertinent.