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GTK SMARTTEST – Long Term Field-Testing Platform for Developing Waste Management and Closure Solutions

GTK SMARTTEST is a customizable and modular field-testing platform for tailings, waste rocks, and side streams. It promotes the circular economy and responsible extractive waste management. Large-scale field tests provide reliable data on the performance [K(1] of both waste management and closure solutions and enhance the utilization of side streams. GTK SMARTTEST is a new service within GTK Mintec’s mineral research laboratories and industrial-scale pilot plant in Outokumpu, Finland.

An excavator lifting a large bag onto a concrete block structure at a testing site in foggy conditions, with workers present and the sun shining through the mist

Key benefits

Reduced environmental impact

Helps develop innovative waste management solutions to minimize environmental impacts.

Improved resource efficiency

Optimizes the use of waste materials to increase sustainability and reduce waste.

Real-time data

Provides geochemical and geotechnical insights in real-time to support waste management decisions.

Early-stage testing

Enables cost-efficient and repeatable testing in the early stages of mining projects alongside mineral processing tests.

Versatile testing opportunities

Allows for testing of cover structures, disposal techniques (dry stacking, paste disposal, co-disposal), long-term behaviour, and effluent quality.

Field tests provide long-term data for safe and responsible waste management.

The management of extractive waste such as tailings and waste rocks requires extensive areas. Many types of extractive waste also involve a risk of seepage waters containing harmful substances entering the environment. GTK SMARTTEST testing platform helps to develop solutions to mitigate these risks and promotes responsible waste management strategies.

The environmental impacts of extractive waste can be managed by means of various environmental protection structures, which should function throughout the life cycle of the operations and even after mine closure.

Two workers in high-visibility safety gear inside a concrete-walled test facility. One worker in an orange GTK jacket walks in the foreground, while another in a yellow suit examines the structure in the background.

Comprehensive and globally unique testing facility GTK SMARTTEST

GTK SMARTTEST which explains how testing facility works.

GTK Mintec – a pilot plant and laboratories for the circular economy and mineral processing

GTK Mintec is a globally unique service provider. It combines mineral research laboratories with an industrial-scale pilot plant and a testing platform for the long-term behaviour of extractive waste.

Explore GTK Mintec in more detail

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