Associated Event
28th International Conference on Paste, Thickened and Filtered Tailings
14–16 April 2026 InterContinental Lisbon | Lisbon, Portugal
Guiding Success in Filtered Stacked Tailings Projects Workshop
13 April 2026 | InterContinental Lisbon | Lisbon, Portugal
With increased emphasis on safe tailings management within the mining industry, filtered tailings have emerged as a leading option for mine operators aiming to significantly reduce the water volume discharged and stored in surface tailings facilities. The successful implementation of a filtered stacked tailings project presents many challenges, including ensuring the physical and chemical stability of the tailings stacks, effectively transporting and placing the dewatered tailings, and selecting scalable dewatering processes – all while maintaining economic viability.
Workshop overview
In this workshop, industry experts will build on the publicly available BHP/Rio Tinto Filtered Stacked Tailings Guide for Study Managers, a link to which will be sent to registered individuals prior to the workshop. Opportunities and lessons learned will be highlighted, such as optimising mine waste, valorising tailings, integrating filtered tailings into early mine planning through geometallurgy, and utilising innovative processing and dewatering flowsheets.
Key learning outcomes
- How to build a successful business case
- Lessons learned in filtered tailings stack design
- Improvements in filtered tailings transportation and deposition knowledge
- Opportunities in process and dewatering designs
- Flowsheet options to be considered for evaluation
Who should attend
- Managers and decision-makers in mining and tailings areas
- Operational, environmental and tailings engineers
- Plant designers, and equipment and reagent suppliers
Presenters
Rachel Jansen
Tailings Manager
Paterson & Cooke
Rachel has been involved in mineral processing for over 20 years within various roles, including metallurgical engineering, consulting and laboratory management. She is currently tailings manager for Paterson & Cooke’s North American practice. For the last 13 years she has focused on tailings dewatering and alternative tailings technologies.
Dr Liam MacNamara
Principal Consultant (mineral processing)
SRK Consulting
Liam has broad industry experience. He spent 24 years working for an international equipment supply company and was involved in numerous international mining related projects in laboratory and pilot scale testing. Liam has been involved in the development of projects from levels of feasibility, process design and detailed engineering of mineral process plants – from the production of basic engineering packages through to plant construction, commissioning and performance testing.
Phil Newman
Lead Tailings Innovation
Anglo American, UK
Phil is vice president tailings innovation at Anglo American and is working on the roll-out and commercialisation of hydraulic dewatered stacking, a new tailings management approach developed and patented by Anglo American. He has been involved in all aspects of innovation and technology development at Anglo American since 2015 and managed their open innovation program from 2015 to 2020. Phil has over 30 years’ experience in mining, starting with paste technology in the mid-1990’s, when he co-founded Golder PasteTec. Phil was also chair of Paste 2006 in Limerick, Ireland
Ashley Rasmussen
Project Manager
Paterson & Cooke
Ashley is a project manager with over a decade of experience in the mining industry, specialising in laboratory and project management. She draws on hands-on expertise to inform project design and execution. Ashley is passionate about exploring new technologies while seeing projects through conceptual to operation phases. This passion contributed to the successful design and operation of a filtered tailings pilot plant at a major mine in North America.
Jamie Spiers
Principal Consultant (geotechnical/tailings)
SRK Consulting
Jamie Spiers has over 17 years’ experience in tailings, mine waste and geotechnical engineering. His main area of expertise is in tailings dam management and design. Jamie has gained experience from working on large copper, uranium, gold, and iron ore mining engineering studies in Ukraine, Russia, West Africa, the EU, PNG, and Australia. Jamie’s background is in geology, where he gained valuable mining experience based in West Africa on gold exploration prospects. He has since supervised a broad range of projects involving foundations investigation and design, tailings storage facility and waste rock dump design, mine waste facility closure design.
Todd Wisdom
Principal Consultant (non-conventional taillings)
SRK Consulting
Todd is a chemical engineer with more than 30 years’ experience in the mining and energy industries specialising in the selection, design, commissioning, and operation of tailings and mineral processing systems. Over the past 10 years, his work has centred on tailings processing, dewatering, transport, and deposition. He has led the development and implementation of several innovative tailings technologies, including EcoTails® and GeoStable™ co-mingling with waste rock, coarse particle flotation systems, and large-format filter press equipment.