Sustainability and fluid mechanics #70719

The minerals and energy industries worldwide are very upbeat about sustainable development. Many companies have sustainability managers. Unfortunately most of their effort in sustainable practice is directed towards the social and stakeholder interaction in the community. Very little effort is being made to apply sustainable practices to management of liquid waste tailings. Even though technology exists now to move from wet to dry disposal methods, the industry still insists on building traditional dams that defer the costs associated with dealing with waste until some time in the future when the company is often able to escape the liability. The paper summarises how knowledge in fluid mechanics (non-Newtonian fluids) can be exploited to minimise the waste associated with these important industries.