Geotechnical Properties of Mine Tailings

Liming Hu, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE 1; Hui Wu 2; Lin Zhang 3; Pengwei Zhang 4; and Qingbo Wen 5

Abstract: The engineering properties of tailings are important for the safety evaluation and engineering design of tailing dams. In the present
study, laboratory experiments were performed to investigate the geotechnical properties of four different tailings, including two iron tailings
(coarse and fine) and two copper tailings (coarse and fine). Compared to the copper tailings, the iron tailings showed higher compressibility,
lower permeability, lower strength, and lower cyclic resistance. With the decrease in void ratio, the coefficient of consolidation almost kept
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constant for the fine iron tailings, whereas for the fine copper tailings, the coefficient of consolidation gradually increased. Under cyclic
loading, the accumulation of pore water pressure was faster in the fine tailings than that in the coarse tailings. The cyclic resistance ratios
(CRR) of the four tailings were found to be comparable with previous report data on other metal tailings, and the consolidation stress showed
little impact on CRR. The laboratory tests provided useful information to understand the geotechnical behaviors of mine tailings including
seepage, deformation, strength, as well as seismic responses. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0001736. This work is made available
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Author keywords: Tailings; Geotechnical properties; Pore water pressure; Cyclic resistance; Cyclic triaxial test.

Introduction impoundment and thereafter consolidation under their own weight

The exploitation and use of mineral resources produce large
amount of mine tailings that are commonly in slurry form with high
water content and compressibility. Over the last few decades, the
volume of tailings being generated increased dramatically with the
increase in the demand for minerals and metals, and the mining of
many low-grade ores. The tailings always contain heavy metals,
toxic substances, and chemicals added during mineral processing,
which may disperse into the environment and threaten public
health. In addition, because of the small grain size and high water
content, the mechanical stability of the tailings mass is poor. There-
fore, the disposal and storage of tailings becomes a significant con-
cern for the overall mining and milling operation associated with
the mining industry.
In order to maintain the normal mining operations, several meth-
ods are proposed for tailing disposal, including disposal of dry or
thickened tailings in impoundments or free-standing piles, backfill-
ing underground mine workings, subaqueous disposal, and the
most common method, the disposal of tailings slurry in impound-
ments that involves the transport of tailing mass in slurry pipes to an
1
Associate Professor, State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Science and
Engineering, Dept. of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing
100084, P.R. China (corresponding author). E-mail: gehu@tsinghua.edu.cn
2 higher than the failure rate of conventional water retention dams,
Research Assistant, State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Science and
Engineering, Dept. of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing
100084, P.R. China. E-mail: hui-wu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
3
Ph.D. Candidate, State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Science and
Engineering, Dept. of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing
100084, P.R. China. E-mail: cqzl1992@163.com
4
Ph.D. Candidate, State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Science and
Engineering, Dept. of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing
100084, P.R. China. E-mail: zhangpw22@163.com
5
Associate Professor, State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Science and
Engineering, Dept. of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing
100084, P.R. China. E-mail: wenqb@tsinghua.edu.cn
Note. This manuscript was submitted on January 22, 2016; approved
on June 28, 2016; published online on September 14, 2016. Discussion
period open until February 14, 2017; separate discussions must be sub-
mitted for individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Materi-
als in Civil Engineering, © ASCE, ISSN 0899-1561.
and compaction to form a tailing dam. The size and number of tail-
ing dams increased rapidly with the increase in mining activity to
address the high global demand for metals and minerals. There are
over 18,400 tailing dams worldwide (Azam and Li 2010). For ex-
ample, the Caren tailing impoundment in central Chile was retained
by an earth-fill dam with a maximum height of 108 m (James et al.
2011), the Bahuerachi tailing dam in Mexico was designed with a
maximum height of 100 m with the capacity of 200 million m3 tail-
ings, and the Yuhezhai iron tailing dam in Yunnan, China, was de-
signed to a maximum height of 182 m to retain 17 million m3
tailings. The height and storage capacity of tailing dams have in-
creased continuously during the past decades to meet the growing
mine exploitation demand, which inevitably leads to the increase
in the risk of tailing dam failure (Klohn 1997; Davis 2002;
Psarropoulos and Tsompanakis 2008; Rico et al. 2008; Azam and
Li 2010; Ferdosi et al. 2015). In fact, the main concern with such
tailing dams is the stability during the mining operation and after
tailing reservoir closure. Azam and Li (2010) reported a total of 198
tailing dam failure events before the year 2000 and 20 failure events
from 2000 to 2010. Eleven other failure events were reported from
2010 to 2015 [WISE Uranium Project (WISE 2015)]. According to
these statistical results, the rate of failure of tailing dams was esti-
mated to be 1.2%, which was more than two orders of magnitude
which was reported to be about 0.01% (ICOLD 2001; Azam and
Li 2010).
The high failure rate of tailing dams has led to an increasing
awareness of the need for enhanced safety in the design and oper-
ation of tailing dams, which is highly dependent on the static and
cyclic characteristics of the tailings used for the construction of tail-
ing dams, as well as the geological and hydrogeological conditions
of the disposal site. Many studies have been conducted to inves-
tigate the mechanical characteristics of mine tailings, and their con-
clusions varied when different kinds of tailings were tested (Vick
1983; Qiu and Sego 2001; Wijewickreme et al. 2005, 2010; Wong
et al. 2008; James et al. 2011; Geremew and Yanful 2012, 2013;
Bonin et al. 2014). For instance, the results from laterite tailings
indicated that the cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) increased with
an increase in the initial effective consolidation stress, whereas

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 the CRR of copper-gold-zinc tailings and gold tailings was insen-
sitive to the initial consolidation stress (Wijewickreme et al. 2005;
James et al. 2011). Geremew and Yanful (2013) illustrated that tail-
ings containing montmorillonite showed higher resistance to cyclic
loading than those containing kaolinite. In fact, tailings character-
istics vary greatly and are highly dependent on the ore type, clay
mineralogy, and the physical and chemical processes used to ex-
tract the economic product. Therefore, a comprehensive under-
standing of the mechanical properties of mine tailings is critical
for the design of a tailing dam. In addition, numerical simulation
has proved to be a useful tool for the analysis of the seepage, de-
formation, seismic response, as well as the assessment of stability
of tailing dams. The required input parameters for such numerical
simulation are generally obtained from laboratory tests.
An iron mine in Yuhezhai, Yunnan, China, and a copper mine in
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poured into the sample mold to form the specimen for the permeabil-
ity test. The fine tailings were first oven dried, then mixed with water
at a predetermined water content of 10% and compacted into the
sample mold in five layers with a dry density of 1.60 and 1.46 g=cm3
for the iron and copper tailings, respectively, and finally saturated
under a vacuum. The specimens for the permeability tests were
10 cm in diameter and 10 cm in height. Except for the specimen
preparation, tests were completely conformed to ASTM standard
D5084-10 (ASTM 2010). The consolidation test was performed in
a one-dimensional oedometer 8 cm in diameter according to ASTM
standard D2435M-11 (ASTM 2011d). The coarse and fine tailings
were naturally deposited in the apparatus and the stepwise vertical
stresses were 12.5, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1,600 kPa.
The unsaturated triaxial testing system (VJTech, Reading,
Berkshire, U.K.) was used to conduct the consolidated undrained

Bahuerachi, Mexico, are going to be constructed, and the plan is to
dispose of produced tailings in tailing reservoirs. Engineering de-
sign for the two tailing dams is necessary before the mines can be
exploited. In this study, a series of laboratory experiments were
conducted to investigate the static and cyclic mechanical properties
of four tailings, including the coarse iron tailing and fine iron tailing
from the Yuhezhai iron mine, and the coarse copper tailing and fine
copper tailing from the Bahuerachi copper mine. The main objec-
tive of this laboratory study was to ascertain the basic geotechnical
properties of the four tailings and to measure their characteristics of
permeability, compression, strength, and cyclic response, which
were essential for the numerical analysis and scientific design of
the two tailing dams. Moreover, the measured engineering proper-
ties of the four tailings were compared with each other and also
compared with results from previous studies on other types of tail-
ings to understand the variety of tailing properties from different
ore mines.
(CU) and consolidated drained (CD) triaxial compression tests on
the tailings according to ASTM standard D4767-11 and D7181-11,
respectively (ASTM 2011c, b). The consolidation stresses were
200, 400, and 800 kPa. The specimens for the triaxial tests were
3.91 cm in diameter and 8 cm in height, and the preparation of
specimens was the same as that in the permeability tests. The initial
void ratios of the samples were 0.94 and 0.93 for the coarse and fine
iron tailing samples, and 0.78 and 0.89 for the coarse and fine
copper tailing samples, respectively.
A stress-controlled cyclic triaxial system (DDS-70, Beijing New
Technology Research Institute, Beijing, China) was used to study the
cyclic properties of the tailings. Both the cyclic strength and cyclic
modulus tests were carried out according to ASTM standards
D5311M-11 and D3999-91 (ASTM 2003, 2013). The size and prepa-
ration of the specimens were the same as that in the triaxial tests. The
frequency of the applied cyclic load was 1 Hz with sinusoidal wave.

Mechanical Properties of the Tailings

Materials and Methods
Tailings
The produced tailings were transported into a hydrocyclone sepa-
ration facility, and two kinds of tailings were generated, i.e., coarse
tailings from the bottom and fine tailings from the overflow of the
hydrocyclone separation facility. The concentrations of the pro-
duced coarse iron and fine iron tailings from the Yuhezhai iron
mine were about 65–70 and 70 wt%, respectively, and the concen-
trations of the coarse copper and fine copper tailings from the
Bahuerachi copper mine were about 72 and 60 wt%.
Characterization of the Tailings
The basic geotechnical properties of the four tailings are summa-
rized in Table 1, and Fig. 1 displays the grain size distributions. The
specific gravity of the coarse and fine iron tailings are 3.23 and
3.08, respectively, which are consistent with those of metal tailings
but much higher than those of natural soils. The specific gravity of
the coarse and fine copper tailings are 2.77 and 2.76, respectively,
which are smaller than those of the iron tailings but slightly larger
than those of natural soils. Fig. 1 indicates that the mass percentage
of grain size less than 0.075 mm is 14.9% for the coarse iron

Test Methods
A series of conventional laboratory experiments were carried out to Table 1. Geotechnical Properties of Coarse and Fine Tailings
investigate the mechanical properties of the tailings, including spe- Yuhezhai Bahuerachi
cific gravity, grain size distribution, Atterberg limits, and hydraulic iron tailings copper tailings
conductivity. Consolidation tests, triaxial tests, and cyclic triaxial Coarse Fine Coarse Fine
tests were conducted to investigate the compression characteristics Properties tailings tailings tailings tailings
and strength of the tailings.
Specific gravity, Gs 3.23 3.08 2.77 2.76
The pycnometer method was chosen to measure the specific Natural water content, w (%) 43–54 43 39 67
gravity. The sieving method and laser particle size analysis were Liquid limit, wL (%) — 28 — 28
combined for the determination of grain size distribution. The Plastic limit, wp (%) — 19 — 13
Atterberg limits were measured with the fall cone test. The per- Plasticity index, I p (%) — 9 — 15
meability of the two coarse tailings was measured with a permea- D10 (mm) 0.051 0.005 0.065 0.005
meter by applying a constant water head gradient to the bottom D30 (mm) 0.093 0.012 0.090 0.028
and top of the sample, and the permeability of the two fine tailings D50 (mm) 0.120 0.030 0.120 0.060
was studied with a flexible wall permeameter under different D60 (mm) 0.160 0.045 0.140 0.074
consolidation stresses (50, 100, 200, 400, and 600 kPa). The as- Coefficient of uniformity 3.11 8.82 2.15 14.8
Coefficient of curvature 1.05 0.59 0.89 2.12
received coarse tailings were first saturated under a vacuum and then

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Fig. 1. Grain size distribution of the coarse and fine tailings
tailings, 78.4% for the fine iron tailings, 14.24% for the coarse cop-
per tailings, and 61.12% for the fine copper tailings. It is worth-
while noting that the grain size distributions of the two coarse
tailings are almost the same, and both present an average particle
size D50 of 0.12 mm. The D50 of the fine iron tailings (0.03 mm) is
smaller than that of the fine copper tailings (0.06 mm). According
to the coefficient of uniformity and coefficient of curvature results,
the coarse iron tailings, fine iron tailings, and coarse copper tailings
are poorly graded soils, whereas the fine copper tailings present a
well-graded grain size distribution. Based on the testing results of
Atterberg limits and grain size distribution, the two coarse tailings
are classified as silty sand (SM), and the two fine tailings are clas-
sified as sandy lean clay (CL) according to the Unified Soil Clas-
sification System (ASTM 2011a).
Consolidation Test
The void ratio (e) versus logarithm of the vertical stress (p) for the
coarse and fine tailings is plotted in Fig. 2. A logarithmic function
can be used to fit the compression curves of the coarse and fine
tailings (Wong et al. 2008)
e ¼ e0 − Cc × logðp=p0 Þ ð1Þ
Fig. 2. Void ratio versus logarithm of vertical stress
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Table 2. Fitting Results of Relationships between Void Ratio and Vertical
Stress
Tailing Void Compression
Tailing material type ratio, e0 index, Cc
Yuhezhai iron tailings Coarse 0.74 0.046
Fine 1.41 0.260
Bahuerachi copper tailings Coarse 0.84 0.025
Fine 1.03 0.085
in which p0 ¼ 1 kPa; e0 = initial void ratio corresponding to p0 ;
and Cc = compression index. The fitting results of the four tailings
are summarized in Table 2. The compression index (Cc ) is 0.046
and 0.260 for the coarse and fine iron tailings, and 0.025 and 0.085
for the coarse and fine copper tailings. Both the coarse and fine iron
tailings display a higher compressibility than the coarse and fine
copper tailings. According to the values of Cc , the coarse iron tail-
ings are characterized as a moderate compressible soil, and the fine
iron tailings are high compressible soil. However, for the copper
tailings, the coarse and fine tailings are characterized as low and
moderate compressible soil, respectively. The Cc values of the four
tailings are in agreement with those reported by Qiu and Sego
(2001) and Wong et al. (2008), as displayed in Fig. 2. The copper
and gold tailings from Qiu and Sego (2001) and the coarse oil sand
tailings from Wong et al. (2008) show a Cc of 0.094, 0.152, and
0.036, respectively, indicating that all of them belong to moderate
compressible soil. The values of Cc of the coal wash tailings and
the fine oil sand tailings are 0.368 and 0.447, which both belong
to high compressible soil. The comparison of Cc for different
tailings indicates that the oil sand tailings and coal wash tailings
have a higher compressibility than the other metal tailings, and
for the same type of tailings, the fine tailings always present higher
compressibility than the coarse tailings. For different types of
tailings, the compressibility is not only related to the grain size
and mine type, but also depends on the grade of mine, mining
technology, mill process, deposition method, mineralogical
composition, etc.
According to the results of the consolidation tests, the coeffi-
cient of compressibility (mv ) under different void ratios were cal-
culated, and the relationships between e and mv were fitted with a
logarithmic function as shown in Fig. 3. With a decrease in the
vertical stress, the coefficient of compressibility decreases. Com-
pared to the two coarse tailings, the two fine tailings present a larger
mv , and moreover, both the coarse and fine iron tailings show a
larger mv than the coarse and fine copper tailings. According to
the fitting results in Fig. 3, the relationship between mv and e
can be described with the following equation:
e ¼ e0 − R × logðmv0 =mv Þ ð2Þ
in which mv0 ðMPa−1 Þ = coefficient of compressibility correspond-
ing to p0 and initial void ratio e0 ; and R = factor describing the
change rate of mv with the change in void ratio. The fitting of
the two fine tailings is better than that of the two coarse tailings
because the correlation coefficients are higher than 0.97 for the
two fine tailings. The fitting results of the two fine tailings can
be expressed as
Fine iron tailings∶ e ¼ 1.41 − 0.308 × logð18.91 MPa−1 =mv Þ
Fine copper tailings∶ e ¼ 1.03 − 0.101 × logð5.92 MPa−1 =mv Þ
ð3Þ
J. Mater. Civ. Eng.

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Fig. 3. Relationship between the coefficient of compressibility and
void ratio of the tailings
Hydraulic Conductivity
According to the results of the permeability tests, the average hy-
draulic conductivities (k) of the coarse iron tailings and the coarse
copper tailings are 1.0 × 10−4 and 2.1 × 10−3 cm=s, respectively.
Fig. 4 further shows the relationship between void ratio and hy-
draulic conductivity of the two fine tailings as well as other kinds
of tailings. The hydraulic conductivities of the two fine tailings in-
crease with the increase in void ratio, and the fine copper tailings
present a higher hydraulic conductivity than the fine iron tailings.
In addition, the hydraulic conductivities of the two tested fine tail-
ings are smaller than those of the copper and gold tailings from Qiu
and Sego (2001), and larger than that of the fine oil sand tailings
from Wong et al. (2008). Compared to the organic tailings, the
metal tailings generally present a larger hydraulic conductivity.
Fig. 4. Relationship between the hydraulic conductivity and void ratio
of the fine tailings
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The change in hydraulic conductivity with void ratio can be further
fitted with a logarithmic function as
e ¼ e0 þ M × logðk=k0 Þ ð4Þ
where k0 = initial hydraulic conductivity under initial void ratio
(cm=s). The fitting results of the two fine tailings can be ex-
pressed as
Fine iron tailings∶ e ¼ 1.41 þ 0.299 × log½k=ð6.2 × 10−5 cm=sÞ
Fine copper tailings∶ e ¼ 1.03 þ 0.382 × log½k=ð2.6 × 10−5 cm=sÞ
ð5Þ
The coefficient of consolidation can be derived from Eqs. (2)
and (4) as
k
Cv ¼ ¼ Cv0 · 10ð1=R−1=MÞ·ðe0 −eÞ ð6Þ
γ w · mv
where γ w = unit weight of water; and Cv0 = initial coefficient of
consolidation, which can be expressed as k0 =ðmv0 · γ w Þ. When
R ¼ M, the decrease in mv with decrease in void ratio exactly
balances the decrease in k, and therefore Cv is constant during
the consolidation process. The initial coefficient of consolidation
Cv0 is 3.3 × 10−6 m2 =s and 4.4 × 10−6 m2 =s for the fine iron
tailings and fine copper tailings, respectively. When R > M, Cv
decreases with the decrease in void ratio during consolidation,
whereas when R < M, Cv increases with the decrease in void ratio.
According to the fitting results in Figs. 3 and 4, for the fine iron
tailings, the values of R and M are almost the same (0.308 and
0.299); therefore, Cv keeps constant during the test. However,
for the fine copper tailings, the value of R is smaller than that
of M, which means Cv increases during the test.
The consolidation theory by Terzaghi (1943) assumed a con-
stant coefficient of consolidation. Lekha et al. (2003) derived a sol-
ution for a one-dimensional consolidation problem considering
more realistic assumptions about soil behavior, including the non-
linear variation of compressibility and hydraulic conductivity as
described in Eqs. (2) and (4). According to the theory of Lekha
et al. (2003), the actual consolidation process takes place faster than
expected by Terzaghi’s theory when R < M. During and after the
construction of the tailing dams, both the coarse and fine tailings
gradually consolidate under their own weight, and the consolida-
tion process is important for the safety evaluation and management
of the tailing dams. Moreover, because the consolidation of fine
tailings is normally slower than the coarse tailings, the analysis
of the consolidation of fine tailings is actually even more important
for a tailing dam. Based on the above analysis of mv and k for the
two fine tailings, the traditional consolidation theory by Terzaghi
(1943) can be used to analyze the consolidation of the fine iron
tailings, whereas for the fine copper tailings, the theory proposed
by Lekha et al. (2003) is recommended.
Triaxial Test
Both the CU and CD tests were conducted on the Yuhezhai iron
tailings, and CU tests were conducted on the Bahuerachi copper
tailings. The friction angle and cohesion of the four tailings were
calculated from the results of the triaxial tests as listed in Table 3,
where ϕcu and ccu denote the strength indices in terms of total stress
calculated from CU tests, ϕ 0 and c 0 denote the strength indices in
terms of effective stress calculated from CU tests, and ϕcd and ccd
denote the strength indices in terms of effective stress calculated
from CD tests. For the two iron tailings, the effective friction angle
(ϕ 0 ) calculated from the CU tests is in accordance with that
J. Mater. Civ. Eng.
 Table 3. Friction Angle and Cohesion of Coarse and Fine Tailings
CU tests CD tests
Tailing material Tailing type ϕcu (degrees) ccu (kPa) ϕ 0 (degrees) c 0 (kPa) ϕcd (degrees) ccd (kPa)
Yuhezhai iron tailings Coarse 25.0 194.0 41.0 8.8 40.0 30.1
Fine 16.0 13.8 32.0 7.4 35.0 28.5
Bahuerachi copper tailings Coarse 38.0 71.0 40.0 32.0 — —
Fine 31.0 0.0 38.0 0.0 — —

obtained from the CD tests (ϕcd ), whereas the effective cohesion
(c 0 ) from CU tests is smaller than that from the CD tests (ccd ).
The effective friction angle and cohesion of the coarse tailings
are larger than those of the fine tailings, both for the iron and copper
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exhibits higher plasticity than the fine iron tailings. According to
the Atterberg limits and the natural water content, the liquefaction
susceptibility of the two fine tailings can be assessed with three
empirical criteria proposed by Wang (1979) and Marcuson et al.

tailings. In addition, the comparison also indicates that the strength
indices (ϕ 0 and c 0 ) of the coarse iron tailings are similar to those of
the coarse copper tailings, whereas the strength indices of the fine
iron tailings are smaller than those of the fine copper tailings.
Cyclic Characteristics of the Tailings
Liquefaction Susceptibility
As shown in Table 1, the liquid limit of the two fine tailings is
the same, and the plastic limit of the fine iron tailings is higher than
that of the fine copper tailings; therefore, the fine copper tailings
(1990) (the Chinese criteria), Seed et al. (2003), and Bray et al.
(2004), as shown in Fig. 5. The Chinese criteria suggest that clay
soil may be liquefied as a result of cyclic loading if the percent of
particles finer than 0.005 mm < 15%, the liquid limit < 35%, and
the water content >0.9 × wL . For the fine iron tailings and fine cop-
per tailings, the percent of particles finer than 0.005 mm is about
10.5 and 10.4%, respectively. Therefore, both of the two fine tail-
ings are not safe under cyclic loading [Fig. 5(a)], and further tests
are needed such as cyclic triaxial (CTX) or cyclic direct simple
shear (CDSS) tests. According to the criteria proposed by Seed et al.
(2003) and Bray et al. (2004) [Figs. 5(b and c)], the fine iron tail-
ings have potential to liquefaction, whereas the fine copper tailings
need further tests.

Fig. 5. Assessment of the liquefaction susceptibility of the two fine tailings: (a) Chinese criterion; (b) criterion proposed by Seed et al. (2003);
(c) criterion proposed by Bray et al. (2004)

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Fig. 6. CSR versus number of cycles required for 5% double amplitude axial strain or 100% pore water pressure: (a) coarse iron tailings; (b) fine iron
tailings; (c) coarse copper tailings; (d) fine copper tailings
Cyclic Resistance Ratio
The failure criteria adopted in the cyclic strength tests is 5% double
amplitude axial strain (ε) or 100% pore water pressure (u), which
means a stage for which the developed pore water pressure during
cyclic loading reached the applied consolidation stress. In this
study, the 5% double amplitude axial strain is adopted to identify
the failure of the tailings specimens. The cyclic strength tests are
conducted under the isotropic consolidation condition (K c ¼ 1.0).
Fig. 6 plots the dimensionless cyclic stress ratio (CSR), defined as
the ratio between the applied cyclic shear stress and twice the con-
solidation stress, against the number of cycles to failure (N f ). With
an increase in CSR, the number of failure cycles decreases. Similar
to the results of copper-gold-zinc tailings and gold tailings reported
by Wijewickreme et al. (2005) and James et al. (2011), the CRR of
the four tailings are all insensitive to the initial consolidation stress.
Furthermore, the relationship between CRR and the number of
failure cycles is generally expressed by the following equation
(Boulanger and Idriss 2004; James et al. 2011):
CRR ¼ aN −b
f ð7Þ
The curves in Fig. 6 are fitted with the above function and the
results are as following:
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For coarse iron tailings∶ CRR ¼ 0.507N −0.186
f
For fine iron tailings∶ CRR ¼ 0.505N f−0.184
For coarse copper tailings∶ CRR ¼ 0.545N f−0.059
For fine copper tailings∶ CRR ¼ 0.403N f−0.05 ð8Þ
As indicated by Eq. (8), the cyclic resistances of the two coarse
tailings are larger than those of the two fine tailings, respectively.
Furthermore, compared to the iron tailings, the copper tailings
possess a higher cyclic resistance.
Some of the previously published data on the cyclic resistance
ratio of other kinds of tailings are compared with the results pre-
sented in this paper in Fig. 7. The CRRs of the iron and copper
tailings in this study are similar to other kinds of tailings such
as copper tailings and copper-zinc tailings. As mentioned above,
the cyclic resistance of soil can also be studied with the CDSS test,
and some of the reported data of CDSS tests are also illustrated in
Fig. 7. The comparison between the CTX and CDSS tests indicates
that the CRR values obtained from CTR tests are larger than those
obtained from CDSS tests.
The CDSS test is more suitable than the CTX test to study the
cyclic strength of soil because the CDSS test can simulate the cyclic
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Fig. 7. Comparison of the CRR of different tailings
rotation of principal stress that takes place during earthquake load-
ing. Idriss and Boulanger (2008) recommended an empirical equa-
tion for the correction of the CTX results to account for the stress
path effects
 
1 þ 2 · ðK 0 ÞCDSS
CRRCDSS ¼ CRRCTR ð9Þ
3 σ3 π
where CRRCDSS = cyclic resistance obtained from CDSS test;
CRRCTR = cyclic resistance obtained from CTR test; and
ðK 0 ÞCDSS = coefficient of earth pressure at rest in a CDSS device.
For normally consolidated soils, the value of ðK 0 ÞCDSS can be taken
between 0.45 and 0.50, and the empirical equation can be expressed
as (Geremew and Yanful 2013)
0.63 CRRCTR ≤ CRRCDSS ≤ 0.67 CRRCTR ð10Þ
Pore Water Pressure
Pore water pressure increased during cyclic loading, and liquefac-
tion occurred when the pore water pressure reaches the initial
consolidation stress, i.e., the effective stress decreased to 0. The
development of pore water pressure in the tailings specimens dur-
ing the cyclic strength tests was monitored, and the results are dis-
played in Fig. 8. The pore water pressure responding curves of the
two coarse tailings are similar to those of tailings reported by James
et al. (2011) and sands reported by Seed et al. (1975). In addition,
under different consolidation stresses and CSR, the pore water pres-
sure responding curves exhibited similar tendencies; thus, the pore
water pressure increased at a relative constant and small rate in the
initial stage (except the rapid accumulation at the beginning), and
then increased rapidly afterward. The normalized pore water pres-
sure (u=σ3 ) increased from 0 to about 0.50–0.60 at normalized
number of cycles (N=N f ) of 0.6, and then 0.65–0.85 at N=N f
of 0.8, and finally 0.96–1.00 at N=N f of 1.0. Unlike the coarse
tailings, the pore water pressure responding curves for the two fine
tailings show a rapid increase stage from the beginning of the cyclic
loading. The pore water pressure of the fine tailings developed
more quickly than that of the coarse tailings, indicating that lique-
faction may occur much easier for fine tailings.
Seed et al. (1975) developed a model to predict the cyclic
pore water pressure development for saturated sand at isotropic
© ASCE 04016220-7
J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2017, 29(2): 04016220
Fig. 8. Comparison of pore water pressure between test results and
model predictions proposed by Seed et al. (1975) and Zhang et al.
(2006)
consolidation condition, in which the relationship between u=σ3
and N=N f could be expressed as follows:
 1=2θ
2
u
¼ arcsin
N
ð11Þ
Nf
where θ = empirical constant determined from laboratory testing.
Zhang et al. (2006) proposed a similar model to predict cyclic
pore pressure for mine tailings based on Seed’s model expressed as
 1=2θ
u 4 N
¼ arctan ð12Þ
σ3 π Nf
To verify the effectiveness of the two models, the pore water
pressure responding curves for the four tailings under 200 kPa were
chosen to compare with the model predictions as shown in Fig. 8.
The model prediction varies dramatically with the change in θ, and
therefore different θ values were examined to identify the optimal
model predictions. The development of pore water pressure under
200 kPa during CTX tests was almost the same for the two coarse
tailings, and the model prediction from Seed et al. (1975) with θ of
0.9 matched well with the test results of the two coarse tailings.
However, for the two fine tailings, the development of pore water
pressure was different, and the model prediction from Zhang et al.
(2006) showed better consistency with the test results than that
from Seed et al. (1975). To predict the development of pore water
pressure in the fine iron tailings and fine copper tailings, the opti-
mal value of θ in the model of Zhang et al. (2006) should be 2.4 and
1.0, respectively.
Shear Modulus and Damping Ratio
The shear modulus (G) and damping ratio (λd ) of the coarse
and fine tailings were investigated with the cyclic modulus test.
The relationship between the normalized shear modulus (G=σ3 )
and the shear strain (γ d ) is plotted in Fig. 9. The normalized
shear modulus decreased with an increase in the axial strain or
shear strain because of the increase in pore water pressure during
cyclic loading. The shear strength increased with an increase in
consolidation pressure, whereas the normalized shear modulus
J. Mater. Civ. Eng.
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Fig. 9. Relationship between normalized shear modulus and shear strain under different cell pressures: (a) coarse iron tailings; (b) fine iron tailings;
(c) coarse copper tailings; (d) fine copper tailings

was independent of the consolidation pressure. Compared to the

iron tailings, the shear strength of the copper tailings was relatively
smaller.
Fig. 10 shows that the damping ratios of the coarse and fine
tailings are almost the same, both for the iron and copper tailings.
The damping ratio increased with an increase in shear strain during
the cyclic modulus test, and the copper tailings exhibited a larger
damping ratio than the iron tailings. Comparison with the test re-
sults from Geremew and Yanful (2013) indicates that the damping
ratios of the four tailings in this study are larger than that of copper-
zinc tailings.

Conclusions

A series of laboratory experiments were conducted to examine

the static and cyclic characteristics of coarse and fine iron tailings
from the Yuhezhai iron mine in China, and coarse and fine copper
tailings from the Bahuerachi copper mine in Mexico. The basic
geotechnical properties including specific gravity, grain size distri-
Fig. 10. Relationship between damping ratio and shear strain of the
bution, plasticity, permeability, and compressibility were investi-
coarse and fine tailings
gated, and triaxial compression tests as well as cyclic triaxial

© ASCE 04016220-8 J. Mater. Civ. Eng.

J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2017, 29(2): 04016220

 tests were performed to analyze the strength and cyclic responses
of the four tailings. The test results were compared with previous
studies on other kinds of tailings, and the following conclusions
were obtained.
Both the two coarse tailings were classified SM, and both the
two fine tailings were classified as CL. The two fine tailings
showed larger coefficients of compressibility and smaller per-
meability, strength, and cyclic resistance compared to the two
coarse tailings, respectively. The comparison between the iron
and copper tailings indicated that the iron tailings possessed larger
coefficients of compressibility, lower permeability, lower strength,
and lower cyclic resistance, both for the coarse and fine tailings.
With a decrease in void ratio, the coefficient of compressibility
decreased and the permeability decreased. The relationships be-
tween the void ratio and the logarithm of larger coefficient of com-
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pressibility, as well as the logarithm of hydraulic conductivity, were
almost linear. Moreover, during the compression process, the co-
efficient of consolidation Cv almost kept constant for the fine iron
tailings, and gradually increased for the fine copper tailings. There-
fore, the consolidation process of the fine iron tailings during and
after the construction of the tailings dam can be analyzed with the
traditional Terzaghi’s theory, whereas for the fine copper tailings,
the acceleration of the consolidation process caused by the increase
in Cv should be considered.
The consolidation stress had little impact on the cyclic resis-
tance ratio of the tailings samples, whereas the shear modulus in-
creased with the increase in consolidation stress. Under cyclic
loading, the pore water pressure in the tailings samples increased
and gradually reached the consolidation stress to trigger liquefac-
tion. For the coarse tailings, the accumulation of pore water pres-
sure was slower in the early period and became faster in the late
period. However, for the fine tailings, the pore water pressure in-
creased rapidly from the beginning. The development of pore water
pressure in the two coarse tailings can be predicted with the model
by Seed et al. (1975), whereas for the two fine tailings, the model
by Zhang et al. (2006) is recommended.
The drainage and consolidation of the fine tailings is important
for the safety of the tailing dams. For the two fine tailings, the lique-
faction susceptibility predicted from empirical criteria is in agree-
ment with that determined from cyclic triaxial tests. Further
analysis such as numerical simulation or centrifuge tests need to
be conducted to examine the seepage, deformation, stability, and
seismic responses of the tailing dams using the soil parameters ob-
tained in the present study. The stability of the tailing dams under
different working conditions can also be analyzed through numeri-
cal simulation with the experimental data.
Acknowledgments
Financial support from the National Basic Research Program of
China (Grant No. 2012CB719804), National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51579132, 51323014), and the China
Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2015M581104) are
gratefully acknowledged.
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