Every tailings dam on earth is both an environmental liability and a potential revenue stream. Old tailings often grade better than the ore being mined today — and modern processing can recover what 20th-century plants could not. Avimetal builds the modular reprocessing systems that turn tailings inventories into cash flow while reducing dam-stability risk and environmental exposure.
Tailings reprocessing has become one of the most strategically important segments of the mining industry. Tightening global standards under GISTM (Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management), public pressure following high-profile tailings dam failures, and the growing realization that historic tailings hold billions of dollars in residual metal value have converged to make reprocessing both a regulatory necessity and a commercial opportunity. Avimetal’s containerized modular plants can be deployed directly on or adjacent to tailings storage facilities, processing material at rates from a few hundred to several thousand tonnes per day with minimal site disturbance.
Recommended Avimetal Stack
- Modular Plant Systems — purpose-configured for tailings reprocessing
- Wet Pulverizing & Tornado Mill — re-grinding to liberate residual metal phases
- Wet Gravity Concentration Module — gold, silver, and heavy-mineral recovery
- Dry Concentration / Electrostatic Dry Washer — water-conserving option
- Cyclone Electrowinning System — precious metal finishing
- Hybrid Plasma Smelting — for refractory or complex polymetallic tailings
- Filter Press Module — produces stable, dry-stack tailings for safer storage
Why Now
- GISTM compliance forcing operators to actively manage tailings inventories
- Post-Brumadinho regulatory tightening worldwide
- ESG-linked capital increasingly conditional on tailings strategy
- Historic tailings often grade above current ore — a profitable byproduct of remediation
- Dry-stack tailings increasingly preferred over wet impoundment
- Government and multilateral funding available for tailings remediation projects in many jurisdictions
Who It's For
Mining majors with legacy tailings liabilities · Junior reprocessing companies acquiring tailings rights · State and federal remediation programs · Mining communities pursuing tailings cleanup with economic upside · Toll processors offering reprocessing as a service
Call to Action
Request a Tailings Reprocessing Study. Provide your tailings tonnage, assay data, and site conditions — we’ll model the recovery economics and propose a modular deployment plan.