How mine waste is made

Mine wastes are produced at each stage of mineral production - mine wastes that can contain critical and other minerals, and could potentially be reprocessed. This infographic shows three kinds of mine wastes produced during mineral production, and a sense of scale of how much waste is produced:

• Rock Dumps
  • Piles of waste rock removed early in the mining process that don't contain enough target mineral to be processed.
  • Produced during mining to produce mineral ore
• Tailings
  • A mix of crushed rock, water and chemical waste from the process separating the valuable ore from the rest of the rock
  • Produced as mineral ore is concentrated
• Slag
  • A by-product of smelting and other purification methods that remove the unwanted pieces of other minerals
  • Produced as concentrate is processed into metal