{"id":84114,"date":"2026-01-24T13:31:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T08:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=84114"},"modified":"2026-01-24T15:16:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T09:46:39","slug":"tailings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/tailings\/","title":{"rendered":"Tailings"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Tailings Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The central government recently announced the country\u2019s first tailings policy, setting guidelines for exploration of critical minerals from primary as well as the secondary sources like mine dumps and tailings of existing mines.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Tailings<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tailings are the <\/span><b>leftover materials from <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>processing of mined ore.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They <\/span><b>consist o<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">f <\/span><b>finely ground rock, unrecoverable or uneconomic metals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>chemicals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>organic matter<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><b>effluent from the extraction process.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They <\/span><b>usually take the form of a liquid slurry made of fine mineral particles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, created as mined ore is crushed, ground, and processed.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Effective tailings management<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is <\/span><b>integral <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the safe and sustainable production of metals and minerals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tailings can be<\/span><b> stored in a variety of ways<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; which way <\/span><b>depends on numerous factors,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for instance, the <\/span><b>local topography<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, how much <\/span><b>rainfall <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an area gets, whether there is regular or irregular <\/span><b>seismic activity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recorded, the <\/span><b>type of mineral being mined, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>how close the mine is to populated areas.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no one-size-fits-all solution; <\/span><b>each tailings facility <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(also commonly known as a <\/span><b>tailings storage facility) is unique.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Dams, embankments,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other types of <\/span><b>surface impoundments <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are by far the most <\/span><b>common storage methods<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> used today.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>India&#8217;s First Tailings Policy for Critical Minerals<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It sets guidelines for <\/span><b>exploration of critical minerals from primary as well as secondary sources like mine dumps and tailings of existing mines.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The new policy is developed on the idea that a <\/span><b>few commodities currently mined<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in India as primary ore may have<\/span><b> scope for recovery of companion metals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or elements <\/span><b>from the tailings<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, anode slimes, pot linings, and slags.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, a <\/span><b>copper mine may have Selenium, Tellurium, Molybdenum, Cobalt,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Rhenium, Gold, and Silver as companion elements.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, <\/span><b>Zinc is found along with Germanium, Silver, Cadmium, and Indium.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Critical minerals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-are-rare-earth-elements-ree\/\" target=\"_blank\">rare earth elements (REE)<\/a><\/strong>, etc., are <\/span><b>vital for solar panels, wind turbines, batteries<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and are essential for India\u2019s economic growth.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/industry\/news\/mines-ministry-announces-policy-to-extract-critical-minerals-from-tailings-126011900816_1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">BS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tailings are the leftover materials from the processing of mined ore. Read more about Tailings, Meaning, Policy, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":84100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-84114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","10":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}