van Wyk, SJ & van Rensburg, L 2006, 'The Effect of the Dispersive Nature of Tailings on Seedling Establishment and Survival', in AB Fourie & M Tibbett (eds), Mine Closure 2006: Proceedings of the First International Seminar on Mine Closure, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 391-403, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/605_32
(https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/605_32_van Wyk/)
Abstract: Tailings material is known to present a challenging growth environment as it presents several ecologically 
hostile characteristics. Although vegetation is initially established through active rehabilitation input, 
questions remain about spontaneous recolonisation potential of the area over time. The influence of soil 
physical properties and more specifically dispersivity, on soil-seed contact interface (safe sites) is still largely 
unknown for tailings dams which are rehabilitated without reshaping or a topsoil cover. Conventional 
grassing limits erosion only by 55% on gold tailings dams with slope gradients of more that 30°, which raises 
questions about the effectiveness and self-propagation of vegetation on tailings. The objectives of this study 
were to quantify the physical nature of gold tailings material in terms of its dispersivity and to report on the 
results of reconstructed soil profiles with improved dispersivity status.  The relationship between dispersivity 
and the establishment of native grass seedlings were further investigated.  This research adds to the 
sustainability debate of directly revegetated tailings dams and the degree to which reconstructed soil systems 
can sustain self-propagating and functioning ecosystems. It is therefore hypothesised that the inherent 
susceptibility of the tailings medium to erosion could substantially affect spontaneous vegetation 
establishment and will have an impact on seedling survival and inevitably successionary development if the 
dispersivity is not addressed.