Mining: Geosynthetic Ballast System Protects Primary Liners

HUESKER has announced the availability of its SoilTain® Protect geotextile system for the international mining community. The patent-pending geosynthetic ballast mattress is constructed of interwoven geotextile tubes to form homogenous panels. These durable mattresses can, in most instances, be filled with site soils or wastes, thereby offering a beneficial reuse option for site materials and reducing the need for special fill.
The system also eliminates the need to construct traditional aggregate covers for liner ballast. The acquisition and placement of those traditional covers is both expensive and the source of significant damage risk to a lining system. More than 70% of lining systems that are damaged prior to beginning their service lives suffer that damage during cover placement. Heavy equipment, normal cover soil/aggregate construction activity, and angular and coarse fill are the primary sources of this damage.
With a geosynthetic approach, all of that damage risk may be eliminated.
For the mining field, which uses roughly 40% of the world’s annual production of geomembranes, this offers of number of advantages. Many of the lining systems in mining must be at least partially exposed to perform optimally. Some of the largest of these applications include heap leach pads, operational water and wastewater cells, processing pits, pregnant liquor trenches, and tailings and ash storage ponds. Frequent access and filling or removing of the contained material is required. In all of these areas, the integrity of the lining system can strongly impact the site’s economical and environmental performance.
SoilTain® Protect is targeted to improving the performance of the mining industry’s high volume of liner designs. And, since mines are frequently situated in remote areas with limited access, and with very large spaces being lined, a lightweight, easy-to-transport geotextile system offers faster, more efficient installation of ballast.
The company notes in a release that SoilTain® Protect:

• Eliminates heavy construction equipment on top of primary geomembranes
• Eliminates greatest threat to liner integrity
• Enhances site safety significantly through reduction of construction traffic
• Increases storage space due to utilization of waste (e.g. tailings, coal ash) inside the protection tube
• Protects your environmental investment safely and efficiently

A new brochure is available (PDF)
Visit HUESKER’s mining engineering solutions page for additional information on this and other geosynthetic products and systems.
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Chris Kelsey is the editor of Geosynthetica. If you have new products, engineering services, events, or project stories to share with the field, contact chris@geosynthetica.net.