Effect of CuSO4 on the Hydromechanical Behavior of Compacted Tailings

Laboratory tests, including compressibility, permeability, and microstructure tests, were conducted on tailings samples using custom-designed test apparatus to investigate the effect of metal contamination (Cu2+) on the hydromechanical behavior of compacted tailings. Infiltrating samples with various dry densities with distilled water or CuSO4 solution at various concentrations showed that the void ratio of compacted tailings decreased with increased dry density. An increase in the metal contaminant concentrations from 0 to 0.1 mol/L increased the compression coefficient of the tailings from 0.14 to 0.84 MPa-1 under a vertical load of 0.01 to 2.0 MPa, while the yield stress of the tailings decreased from 204.3 to 98.7 kPa, respectively. The linear relationship between permeability coefficient (k) and void ratio (e) is described by k = - 6.48 + 17.17e. Microstructure test results showed that the diffusion double layer thinned, and the surface potential decreased, indicating that the contaminant of Cu2+ enhanced the compressibility and permeability of the tailings. The microstructure test results also showed that the amount of fine-grained soil in the copper tailings was significantly less after the hydromechanical test. Therefore, the permeability and compressibility of copper tailings increased. The experimental results are in good agreement with the estimated results.