Tailings Paste Backfill Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- 32.8% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees together hold 84 of the 256 records in scope — dense enough that a new entrant should expect to design around existing claims rather than file into open ground.
- Filing cooled after a 2022 peak. Filings ran from 21 in 2021 down to 13 in 2024, a 38% pullback over that span, following a peak of 28 filings in 2022 — publication lag means 2025-26 counts will still rise as later filings post.
- Cement chemistry, not pumping hardware, dominates the claims. C04B (ceramics, cement & refractories) touches 42.6% of all 256 records, more than three times the share tied to positive-displacement pumps or mixing equipment.
Filing growth compares 2021 (21 records) with 2024 (13) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 256 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Tailings paste backfill sits at the intersection of mineral processing and civil engineering: dewatered tailings are mixed with a hydraulic binder and pumped back underground to stabilise voids and cut surface tailings storage. This landscape draws on 256 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 under a search built around paste backfill, cemented paste backfill, tailings backfill and mine paste fill terminology. The scope spans binder chemistry, slurry and paste rheology, pumping and pipeline transport, and underground placement methods, so a single record can carry claims that touch more than one of those areas at once.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the last one to two years in any trend understate real filing activity — 2025 and 2026 counts will keep rising as pending applications post. Reading families rather than raw document counts also matters here: a single applicant can generate several publications from one underlying invention through continuations or parallel jurisdiction filings, which inflates raw counts relative to genuinely distinct inventions.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 256-record set: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density that any new filing has to navigate.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 28 in 2022, then eased to 13 by 2024 — a 38% decline over the 2021-2024 window. The most recent one to two years are still filling in as later publications post, so the apparent slowdown should not yet be read as a shrinking field.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C04B (ceramics, cement & refractories) appears in 42.6% of the 256 records, well ahead of E21F mine safety and ventilation at 22.7% and B65G conveying and material handling at 12.5%. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% of the record total — they describe where claim attention concentrates, not a strict partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 256 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Tailings & Mine-Waste Management: Tailings Paste Backfill Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about tailings & mine-waste management: tailings paste backfill patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art and a recent representative filing
US12286377B2 — Process of preparing a cemented paste backfill material
A process of preparing a cemented paste backfill material, the material including ground mine tailings, a hydraulic binder and water, wherein the solids content of the backfill material is 70-82 wt.-%, the process including a) providing a dry premix, the premix including the hydraulic binder, a superplasticizer and optionally a defoaming agent, b) mixing the dry premix with the ground mine tailings and water.Granted April 2025 to Amrize Technology Switzerland LLC — illustrates how recent claims anchor on a specific solids-content window and a dry-premix sequencing step rather than the binder chemistry alone.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20070186820A1 | Binder for mine tailings, alluvial sand and the like | 109 |
| 2 | WO1998049115A1 | High pulp density, fast setting and high early strength backfill method and material | 36 |
| 3 | US6168352A | Apparatus for producing high density slurry and paste backfills | 34 |
| 4 | US6297295B1 | Transport of solid particulates | 21 |
| 5 | US5718510A | Paste production and storage apparatus | 21 |
| 6 | US20150239782A1 | Backfill, methods of making, and use thereof | 19 |
| 7 | KR1020050114193A | A grout carrying out mehtod for Paste Backfill Groutingat the Cave | 19 |
| 8 | KR1020050114192A | A grout making appratus for paste backfill grouting | 19 |
| 9 | US6586497B2 | Transport of solid particulates | 18 |
| 10 | CA2653032A1 | An integrated system for producing de-asphalted bitumen from oil sands | 17 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations inside this corpus — treat the ranking as a signal of influence on the field, not of current technical relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three signals worth weighing before drafting claims in this space: where prior art sits thickest, how filing momentum has actually moved, and which jurisdictions matter for enforcement.
The top of the field is dense, not crowded everywhere
84 of 256 records sit with five assignees, and the top 10 combined reach 51.6% (132 records). Below that the ranking runs to 83 companies total, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants — concentration at the top coexists with genuine open ground further down the ranking.
Filing activity cooled after the 2022 peak
Volume rose from 8 filings in 2017 to a peak of 28 in 2022, then fell to 13 by 2024. Because publication lag means 2025-26 figures are still incomplete, this reads as a post-peak correction rather than confirmed decline — the real 2025-26 trend will not be visible until later publications post.
Binder chemistry, not transport hardware, is where the claims sit
C04B (cement & refractories) touches 42.6% of the 256 records, while positive-displacement pump claims under F04B sit at only 8.2%. A new entrant focused purely on pumping or pipeline hardware faces a thinner prior-art field than one targeting binder formulation.
Filing is spread across mining jurisdictions, not centred on one office
The United States (44), Canada (34) and China (31) lead receiving-office counts, with Australia (30), the EPO (26) and WIPO/PCT (18) close behind — reflecting where large-scale underground mining operations actually sit rather than a single dominant filing venue.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to tailings & mine-waste management: tailings paste backfill patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and what is still uncontested
The assignee ranking runs to 83 companies across the 256 records in scope. A handful of names hold multiple filings each, but the ranking's length shows this is not a two-player field — it is a leader group followed by a long tail of narrower filers, several of them research institutes or single-site operators rather than repeat filers.
A clear leader, not a runaway monopoly
The top-ranked assignee holds 22 of 256 records — meaningful density, but well short of dominating the field. Fifth place sits at 12 records and tenth place at 9, showing a fairly gradual drop-off rather than a sharp cliff after the leader.
Co-filing is limited and mostly bilateral
Ten co-assignee pairs appear across the corpus, the strongest linking a paste-fill equipment specialist with a process-equipment group on six shared records. Most other pairings involve two or three shared filings, often between a corporate assignee and named individual inventors — collaboration exists but is not the field's dominant filing pattern.
Momentum has stalled across several established filers
Among the assignees tracked for recent-year activity, filing in the latest year sits at zero or a single record for most, with one leading assignee down 100% year-over-year. That pattern is consistent with the broader 2021-2024 pullback rather than any one company retreating from the space.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Sepro Mineral Systems Canada | 1 | 0% |
| GRAYMONT WESTERN CANADA INC | 0 | -100% |
| GL&V (Inc.) | 0 | — |
| AECI International Mining | 0 | — |
| Holcim Technology Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Outotec (Finland) Oy | 0 | — |
| Betolar Oyj | 0 | — |
| Xi'an University of Science and Technology | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The dataset points to specific next questions rather than a single verdict — each depends on where in the value chain a reader sits.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leader group
With 32.8% of records held by five assignees, any new binder or process claim in the cement chemistry space should be checked against that group's granted claims before drafting, not after.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaWatch the 2025-26 publication window
The apparent post-2022 slowdown is partly a lag artefact. Filings made in 2024-2025 will keep publishing through 2026-2027, so re-check the trend before concluding the field has cooled.
Track filing trends in EurekaTest claims in the under-claimed branches
Sensing, control and low-carbon binder sub-areas show thinner filing density than core binder chemistry — worth a targeted prior-art search before committing drafting resources there.
Run a white-space search in EurekaCommon questions on tailings paste backfill patents
This landscape covers 256 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 under a search built around paste backfill, cemented paste backfill, and tailings backfill terminology. The ranking of assignees behind those records runs to 83 companies, meaning filing activity is spread across a genuine field rather than concentrated in a handful of applicants. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true count for 2025-2026 filings will keep rising as later applications post.
The assignee ranking spans 83 companies, with the leading assignee holding 22 of the 256 records in scope and the top five combined accounting for 84 records, or 32.8% of the field. The drop-off from first to tenth place is gradual rather than a sharp cliff — tenth place still holds 9 records — so the field has a clear leader group but no single dominant monopoly. A freedom-to-operate check should look at the top ten collectively, not just the single leader.
Filings rose from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 28 in 2022, then declined to 13 by 2024 — a 38% drop over that three-year span. However, publication lag means 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete, so this should be read as a post-peak correction rather than confirmed evidence the field is shrinking. Revisit the trend once later-year filings have had time to publish.
Cement and refractories chemistry, classified under IPC C04B, touches 42.6% of the 256 records in scope — more than double the next largest category, mine safety and ventilation (E21F) at 22.7%. Transport and pumping hardware, covered by B65G and F04B, sits considerably lower at 12.5% and 8.2% respectively. That split suggests binder formulation claims are where prior art is thickest, while pumping and placement hardware carries comparatively less claim density.
Relative to the dense binder chemistry and mine-safety classes, sub-areas such as low-carbon alternative binders, real-time paste rheology sensing during pumping, and autonomous pour-sequencing control show thinner filing density in this dataset. These are not guaranteed to be unclaimed, but they carry less prior art relative to the core chemistry and equipment classes. A targeted search within those specific sub-areas is the right next step before committing drafting resources.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.