Paste 2026
28th International Conference on Paste, Thickened and Filtered Tailings
14–16 April 2026 | Lisbon, Portugal
- Abstracts are due 18 August 2025. Click here to learn more.
- Workshop host EOIs are due 31 July 2025. Learn more here.
- The Comprehensive Handbook on Mine Fill is available to order. See more.
- Paste 2025 conference papers are available from the ACG Online Repository of Conference Proceedings, courtesy of Open Access Sponsor, Knight Piésold.
- The ACG’s Tailings – From Concept to Closure training video is available to stream for free!
Conference Themes
- Thickening and filtration
- Rheology
- Emerging issues and technology
- Surface disposal
- Backfill
- Transportation
- Case studies
- Underground and backfill
Abstracts are due 18 August 2025!
View the event brochure.
Paste 2026 Chair
Stephen Wilson
Managing Director – Europe
Paterson & Cooke (UK), Ltd.
As Chair of Paste 2026, Stephen looks forward to fostering open dialogue, sharing best practices, and supporting the continued evolution of responsible tailings management worldwide.
The Golden Thread
Changing the narrative
The mining industry often suffers from a poor public reputation – viewed as environmentally damaging, profit-driven, and out of sync with society’s values. Yet, this perception fails to recognise the immense progress being made. Across the globe, professionals in our field are developing smarter, cleaner technologies; managing environmental risks more responsibly; and in some cases, delivering net positive outcomes for communities and ecosystems.
Mining is essential to the green transition. From critical minerals to decarbonisation technologies, our work underpins the shift to a more sustainable future. But despite these contributions, the sector remains widely misunderstood.
So how do we change the narrative?
How do we bring visibility to the good work being done – day in and day out – by committed individuals and organisations? How do we reshape perceptions to reflect the role mining must play in a just and sustainable world?
Throughout the week at Paste 2026, we will explore these questions – acknowledging challenges, celebrating progress, and seeking a collective voice that communicates the value and responsibility of our industry. This ‘golden thread’ of reputation, purpose, and impact will weave through the entire conference, connecting technical conversations to a broader, more ambitious vision.
Stephen Wilson
Managing Director – Europe
Paterson & Cooke (UK), Ltd.
ACG Online Repository of Conference Proceedings
There is a range of papers from previous Paste conferences that are freely available to download from the Online Repository of Conference Proceedings.
mXrap’s Paste Backfill Design app is designed to help engineers to do the following:
- Calculate paste fill volumes and bund capacities.
- Assess the fill stresses and stability for vertical and horizontal exposures.
- Analyse UCS test results and fit a strength prediction model.
- Assess the pressure and friction profile of the paste reticulation path.
Click here to learn more.
Now available for purchase…. Comprehensive Handbook on Mine Fill
Background
Co-editors Professor Yves Potvin and Dr Ryan Veenstra, together with worldwide mine fill experts, have written a new and comprehensive technical publication to examine the evolution of mine fill practice over the last two decades. This handbook advances the safe, efficient and economic application of fill within the mining community.
Content
This comprehensive publication explores both the theoretical and practical aspects of mine fill application with a range of examples covering:
Mine Fill Within the Mining and Tailings Life Cycle
Co-editors
Professor Yves Potvin
Professor of Mining Geomechanics
Australian Centre for Geomechanics
Dr Ryan Veenstra
Global Backfill Specialist
Newmont
Fundamentals
- Mine fill constitutive materials
- Classification and dewatering of tailings
- Fluid mechanics of mine fill
- Geomechanics of mine fill
Operation
- Mine fill placement and risk mitigation
- Mine fill management
Design
- Mine fill exposure stability
- Cemented rockfill systems
- Hydraulic fill systems
- Cemented paste mine fill systems
- Underground distribution system
- Early age behaviour of hydraulic and paste fill and their containment
Readership
This publication is a valuable reference for mining practitioners, early career geotechnical engineers, operating and regulatory professionals, consultants, academics, researchers and other mine fill peers.