Established in 1999 in Seattle, Washington, MineFill Services provides specialist technical advice in mine backfilling to clients worldwide. Our backfill expertise encompasses the full spectrum from hydraulic fills and cemented rockfills, to paste fills and paste thickened tailings. The primary focus of our expertise is underground metal mining for both base metals and precious metals, however our clients have included uranium, diamonds, coal, potash and soda ash (trona).

Our Core Service

Our core services range from backfill geomechanics (mix designs and mix optimization, strength assessments, numerical modeling) to plant designs, construction and commissioning. Much of our backfill work is aimed at scoping studies and feasibility studies for backfill plants and paste plants including conceptual level to basic engineering level designs, equipment sizing and selection, capital and operating costs, and project scheduling. We maintain a close liaison with vendors in the market and a library of vendor costs.

MineFill Services’ expertise in backfill reticulation systems includes pump selection and motor sizing, pipeline analysis, pipe selection and sizing, instrumentation and monitoring, and barricade designs.

Backfill Quality Control

MineFill Services has significant expertise in backfill operations and provides routine advice to backfill operations worldwide. Our services include backfill quality, design of QA/QC programs, binder optimization, and troubleshooting of operational issues in backfill plants and reticulation systems. We also provide audits of existing backfill systems.

Abandoned Mines/Mine Rehabilitation

In recent years MineFill has partnered with major civil contractors to stabilize abandoned and historic mines for environmental and safety goals. This unique service requires an in-depth understanding of the flow behavior of paste and backfill mixes. Our services have included paste mix designs, placement methodology, mix and placement quality control, and liaison with regulatory and government agencies.