Thermal Disturbances in Permafrost Due to Open Pit Mining and Tailings Impoundment
The paper is concerned with thermal disturbances in continuous permafrost due to open pit mining and tailings impoundment in the cold regions of Northern Canada. Numerical simulations were conducted to investigate issues of thermal regime changes and permafrost degradation in both the short term and...
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2019
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3390/min10010035 https://doaj.org/article/a40274d4ec52475191a5f47140932d7d |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:a40274d4ec52475191a5f47140932d7d 2023-05-15T17:48:04+02:00 Thermal Disturbances in Permafrost Due to Open Pit Mining and Tailings Impoundment Ahmad Booshehrian Richard Wan Grant Su 2019-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/min10010035 https://doaj.org/article/a40274d4ec52475191a5f47140932d7d EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/1/35 https://doaj.org/toc/2075-163X 2075-163X doi:10.3390/min10010035 https://doaj.org/article/a40274d4ec52475191a5f47140932d7d Minerals, Vol 10, Iss 1, p 35 (2019) permafrost uranium mining talik tailings kiggavik climate change Mineralogy QE351-399.2 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/min10010035 2022-12-31T12:50:49Z The paper is concerned with thermal disturbances in continuous permafrost due to open pit mining and tailings impoundment in the cold regions of Northern Canada. Numerical simulations were conducted to investigate issues of thermal regime changes and permafrost degradation in both the short term and the long term in connection with the proposed Kiggavik project in Nunavut, Canada. The results of numerical simulations indicate that no open talik would form below the East Zone and Center Zone pits during the estimated mining and milling operation period of 14 years, although a thin thawed zone would develop surrounding the open pits. For the Main Zone pit where the excavation would break through permafrost, the open talik remains following an extended operation period of 25 years with a 5 to 30 m thawed zone along the pit side walls. In the long term, with a plausible climate change scenario of 5 °C increase in the mean annual ground surface temperature during the next 100 years, the permafrost surrounding the in-pit tailings management facilities (TMFs) would reduce greatly in about 500 years. However, an approximately 40 m thick permafrost layer would remain on the top of the TMFs, which is impervious and would prevent any tailings pore water from migrating upward to reach the ground surface. Article in Journal/Newspaper Nunavut permafrost Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Canada Nunavut Talik ENVELOPE(146.601,146.601,59.667,59.667) Minerals 10 1 35 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
permafrost uranium mining talik tailings kiggavik climate change Mineralogy QE351-399.2 |
spellingShingle |
permafrost uranium mining talik tailings kiggavik climate change Mineralogy QE351-399.2 Ahmad Booshehrian Richard Wan Grant Su Thermal Disturbances in Permafrost Due to Open Pit Mining and Tailings Impoundment |
topic_facet |
permafrost uranium mining talik tailings kiggavik climate change Mineralogy QE351-399.2 |
description |
The paper is concerned with thermal disturbances in continuous permafrost due to open pit mining and tailings impoundment in the cold regions of Northern Canada. Numerical simulations were conducted to investigate issues of thermal regime changes and permafrost degradation in both the short term and the long term in connection with the proposed Kiggavik project in Nunavut, Canada. The results of numerical simulations indicate that no open talik would form below the East Zone and Center Zone pits during the estimated mining and milling operation period of 14 years, although a thin thawed zone would develop surrounding the open pits. For the Main Zone pit where the excavation would break through permafrost, the open talik remains following an extended operation period of 25 years with a 5 to 30 m thawed zone along the pit side walls. In the long term, with a plausible climate change scenario of 5 °C increase in the mean annual ground surface temperature during the next 100 years, the permafrost surrounding the in-pit tailings management facilities (TMFs) would reduce greatly in about 500 years. However, an approximately 40 m thick permafrost layer would remain on the top of the TMFs, which is impervious and would prevent any tailings pore water from migrating upward to reach the ground surface. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ahmad Booshehrian Richard Wan Grant Su |
author_facet |
Ahmad Booshehrian Richard Wan Grant Su |
author_sort |
Ahmad Booshehrian |
title |
Thermal Disturbances in Permafrost Due to Open Pit Mining and Tailings Impoundment |
title_short |
Thermal Disturbances in Permafrost Due to Open Pit Mining and Tailings Impoundment |
title_full |
Thermal Disturbances in Permafrost Due to Open Pit Mining and Tailings Impoundment |
title_fullStr |
Thermal Disturbances in Permafrost Due to Open Pit Mining and Tailings Impoundment |
title_full_unstemmed |
Thermal Disturbances in Permafrost Due to Open Pit Mining and Tailings Impoundment |
title_sort |
thermal disturbances in permafrost due to open pit mining and tailings impoundment |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/min10010035 https://doaj.org/article/a40274d4ec52475191a5f47140932d7d |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(146.601,146.601,59.667,59.667) |
geographic |
Canada Nunavut Talik |
geographic_facet |
Canada Nunavut Talik |
genre |
Nunavut permafrost |
genre_facet |
Nunavut permafrost |
op_source |
Minerals, Vol 10, Iss 1, p 35 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/1/35 https://doaj.org/toc/2075-163X 2075-163X doi:10.3390/min10010035 https://doaj.org/article/a40274d4ec52475191a5f47140932d7d |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/min10010035 |
container_title |
Minerals |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
35 |
_version_ |
1766153245695148032 |