Reclamation activities at the Nickel Plate Mine tailings facility

The Nickel Plate Mine is a former gold producing operation owned and operated by Homestake Canada Inc. Since the cessation of tailings deposition in October 1996, the tailings facility has become a focus of the reclamation activities at the Mine. The reclamation of the Facility was initiated in May 1998 with the start of the tailings cover system construction. Reclamation activities at the tailings facility since closure include the following: a tailings cover system designed to ensure long-term management of surface water runoff using materials that would support vegetation; a lined containment facility constructed to store high density sludge produced by the water treatment process; and a design for post closure surface water management comprising a sediment control pond and emergency spillway. This paper presents an overview of these reclamation activities and the progress of construction to date. In addition, instrumentation and monitoring data has been used to evaluate the post closure stability of the tailings facility and to demonstrate that its overall stability has improved with the removal of the supernatant pond and construction of the tailings cover.Non UBCUnreviewedOthe