tailings, definition of

Rock and other waste materials removed as impurities when minerals are mined and mineral deposits are processed. These materials are usually dumped on the ground or into ponds.

• Revolutionary U.K. project is experimenting with algae to turn toxic mine waste into biofuel
  Combining pollution cleanup, green energy, and recycling, a new project in the U.K. investigates the potential of using algae to clean up an old mine site, while producing both  biofuels and metals for electronics at the same time. The Guardian reports
• Dreadful Mining Accident Leaves Hundreds Without Water in Canada
  About 300 people in rural British Columbia, Canada are without drinking water right now after the tailings pond at a nearby mine breached, spilling more than a billion gallons of toxic waste into the environment...
• Just Say No : Oil, Coal or Tailings
  The well-funded fossil fuel lobby is poised for a fight in the Senate. The clean energy and climate change legislation being debated in the Senate is in danger! Big Oil and Big Coal do not want to release their stranglehold on our economy.Even worse,...
• Arsenic, lead and cadmium in our waters?
  Due to a recent Supreme Court case, Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, a mining company will dump toxic mining waste into a pristine Alaskan lake on national forest lands.Redefining mine waste as "fill material," which is exempt...