Thirteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

Today, due to climate change, moving dust from mine tailing is a critical environmental problem especially for the communities around mines. Drying of the bed of tailings, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, increases in regions prone to dust and erosion, which becomes one of the major causes of soil and water pollution. In this study for improving the physical and mechanical properties of tailings by using the cementing process as one of the stabilization methods against the wind, erosion is proposed. For this purpose, in this research, using silica gel as a material consisting of sodium silicate to strengthen and cement the tailing of Zarshuran mine against wind erosion has been investigated. The cementation process of the tiling is performed with diluted sodium silicate solutions (20, 35, and 50%), and the physical and mechanical properties such as wind tunnel testing and erosion rate, resistance to saturation conditions, and finally permeability on the cemented tailing are evaluated. According to the results of this study, stabilization of tilling by sodium silicate has created a cement layer on the tilling so that it will increase the resistance to wind and water erosion.