- Product: Coletanche ES2
- Quantity: 133,000 m²
- Objective: Environmental rehabilitation of a mine and former dam
AUGUST 2019: MINE WASTE COVER IN A TAILINGS POND AT CAPRICORN COPPER (AUSTRALIA)
Coletanche worked on the Capricorn Copper mine rehabilitation project to cover 100,000 m² of a tailings dam and 40,000m² of a mine waste pond (leachate).
The aim of this project WAS to address the environmental problems caused by mining and to give a second life to this area through revegetation.
The combination of the Coletanche geomembrane with a 1 m-thick cover of soil and crushed stone will provide waterproofing for up to ten centuries, according to Brett Fletcher, Capricorn Copper’s managing director (source).
Using a bituminous geomembrane on this type of site allows for innovation and avoids the alternative of a clay cover, which involves finding and moving nearly 100,000 tonnes of clay.
The advantage of using Coletanche on this project were:
- Its resistance over time,
- Its ease of installation, which makes it possible to work with local labour without using a specialised subcontractor. As Brett Fletcher stated, “We work with local contractors”.
- Its cost: Coletanche was less expensive than a clay cover solution, which would have required more human and transport resources.
