28th International Conference on Paste, Thickened and Filtered Tailings
14–16 April 2026 InterContinental Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
ATC Williams has been actively participating in the Paste conference since its inception in 1999. We continue to attend and present at this event because it brings together leading practitioners, researchers, and operators to share the latest advances in tailings dewatering and management systems. We firmly believe that understanding the interaction between dewatering processes, water recovery, tailings transport, deposition, and containment structures is fundamental to effective tailings management.
Over many years, ATC Williams has been a forerunner in advancing industry knowledge on thickened tailings behaviours and management schemes such as Central Thickened Discharge (CTD) and Down Valley Discharge (DVD) schemes. Our experience shows that there is often a close link between the overall tailings management strategy and dewatering option, with trade‑offs frequently required between achieving optimum solids concentration and ensuring an efficient transport and deposition system.
Paste 2026 Papers and Presentations
ATC Williams has multiple representatives attending and presenting, including Dr Behrooz Ghahreman-Nejad, Dr Sadegh Javadi and Dr Behnam Pirouz, who will be presenting their respective papers as outlined below.
Paste 2026, ATC Williams representatives, L-R: Dr Behrooz Ghahreman-Nejad, Dr Sadegh Javadi, Dr Behnam Pirouz, Zerui (Thomas) Lu & Keith Seddon.
Transforming tailings storage: a comparative study of central thickened discharge versus conventional tailings storage facilities in Western Australia.
Dr Behrooz Ghahreman-Nejad1,2 and Zerui Lu1
The paper reports on a high-level study assessing tailings storage options for an arid Western Australian mine site. After evaluating several strategies, the study identifies Central Thickened Discharge (CTD) as the preferred solution. The paper outlines the design rationale, early operational performance, and long-term implications of adopting CTD. Compared with traditional unthickened tailings TSFs, the CTD approach offers major advantages, including reduced liquefaction and stability risks, simpler construction, improved tailings deposition and water recovery, and a lower overall environmental footprint.
1 ATC Williams, 2 The University of Melbourne, Australia
Geomorphology of thickened tailings beaches: insights from field deposition and full-scale trials.
Dr Behnam Pirouz, Dr Sadegh Javadi and Keith Seddon
Observations from large-scale field deposition trials and full-scale tailings storage facilities (TSFs) across various mine sites are used to develop a descriptive model that outlines the key processes and mechanisms involved in thickened tailings beach formation, and their effects on the resulting overall beach slope. The model presented in this paper highlights the relative significance of sheet flow and self-formed channel flow in the formation and evolution of the beach.
The model is set in the context of the overall picture of thickened tailings beach development over time, and describes different stages of beach formation, the interaction between sheet flow and channel flow that form and expand the overall stack footprint and beach slope.
The model provides TSF designers with an in-depth understanding of the relevant parameters and those that are not, in arranging small-scale trials for evaluating thickened tailings beach slopes.
Paste and thickened tailings transportation: flow characterisation.
Dr Sadegh Javadi & Dr Behnam Pirouz
Co-authored with Dr Allan Thomas, Slurry System Engineering
Tailings transport and distribution are integrated elements of any wet tailings storage facility (TSF). This paper examines the flow behaviour and hydraulic performance of paste and thickened tailings in pipeline transport systems, building on earlier work that covered general tailings transport principles. The focus is on characterising non-Newtonian tailings (from copper, coal, and gold operations) across turbulent and laminar flow regimes and comparing design‑phase predictions with operational data collected after commissioning. Full-scale data is used to validate flow behaviour models and assess system performance.
The study also explores particle settling in laminar flow for a hypothetical copper–gold tailings system and recommends flushing strategies to prevent solids bed formation. In an operating high-density gold tailings pipeline, measured pump pressures are compared with predicted values, revealing that the system operates with a stable solids bed and turbulent flow above it. The close agreement between predicted and observed pressures demonstrates that the hydraulic models used during design reliably represent real-world performance.
Dr Allan Thomas, Slurry Systems Engineering.
Please contact our Tailings Management and Slurry and Mechanical Engineering teams to learn more.