Abstract: As the largest amounts of industrial wastes in the world，mine tailings have great impact on environment，ecosystem，society as well as mine investment and operation.Nowadays，besides of the traditional tailing ponds，there are new techniques developed for tailings storage and disposal.In view of the current situation of tailings disposal at home and abroad，the tailings storage methods are classified from three aspects of tailings pattern，type of storage and site of disposal facility.The analysis on tailings failure cases in past decades in the world，indicated that the traditional disposal facility owns higher risk and higher rate of dam failure.Some cases that the mines utilized ways of filtered dry-storage，paste tailings disposal，submarine tailings disposal and tailing-waste mixed disposal are listed，and the feature and circumstance of tailings disposal methods and factors needed to be considered before application are introduced.The influences on application of new tailings disposal technologies are discussed，including site-specific feature，tailing equipment，environmental protection standards and economical efficiency in operation.Besides，it is indicated that there is some progress in research and application of tailing disposal methods，but still is a certain gap between China and the developed countries.Finally，it is proposed that some storage methods，including filtered tailings dry-storage，paste tailings disposal，cemented paste tailings disposal and hybrid technology，are promising for tailing treatment in China under high economic efficiency.

Key words: Mine tailings, Methods of tailings disposal, Tailings pond, Paste tailings, Filter-dry storage, Site-specific, Trend of development