Acid-generating tailings are stored in ponds with water covers.

The results are relevant to the design and construction of bentonite slurry walls around acid-generating tailings and acid water containment ponds at mine sites.

It was suggested that the Discovery mine site could provide an opportunity to develop and demonstrate appropriate containment and reclamation techniques for acid-generating tailings (Hall and Sutherland 1989).

It has the objective of developing an inventory of practical techniques to achieve sufficient reduction in the impact of acid-generating tailings and wasterock to permit ultimate abandonment without ongoing treatment or maintenance.

In 1989, Canada launched a major cooperative government/industry program, the Mine Environment Neutral Drainage Program, to focus on the prediction, prevention and control, and long-term management and monitoring of potential acid-generating tailings and waste rock.

In the Yukon, there are currently no operating mines, but Faro (reopening in 1995) alone has 55 million tonnes of acid-generating tailings and 100â€"150 million tonnes of waste rock, much of which is acid generating or may become acid generating.

'Me objective of the RATS program (1) is to produce an inventory of practical techniques which will enable the impact of acid-generating tailings and waste rock to be sufficiently reduced so as to allow for their ultimate abandonment without the need for on-going treatment or maintenance.