The operational fluctuations of tailings thickeners have the potential to cause significant impacts on the
tailings transport system and the tailings deposition at a tailings storage facility (TSF).
The statistical analysis of actual recorded data of underflow solids concentration and flowrate of different
thickeners is presented in this paper. The collected data are from the operation of four different mines; one
Zinc-lead, two Copper and one Gold mine.

The variability in these two important parameters can be related to process fluctuations, design or
construction defects including instrumentation and controls, the variability in mine orebody during the life of
the project or operation of the thickener.

The analysis of the data shows that the actual performance of the thickener can be significantly different from
what is usually considered at the design stage.

An example is presented to show the impacts of thickener performance variability on tailings transport system
and thickened tailings beach slope quantitatively.