Techniques for management of tailings include treating the tailings to remove sand and a portion of the fines in a sand dump operation. The tailings are flowed down a beaching area to form a series of lifts. Compaction and drainage facilitate the formation of compacted zones for each lift. Thin fine tailings are produced and are collected and sent for maturation. Drainage water is collected and removed from below the lifts. The techniques may be used to build a sand dump in a mine pit at least partially using the pit wall and other mining material. After maturation of the thin fine tailings, mature fine tailings may be retrieved from a maturation pond and dewatered by addition of a flocculant to form a flocculation material that is deposited onto sub-aerial deposition areas. Various tailings components such as coarse sand, fines and water can thus be effectively handled and managed.