Mine tailings management remain among the most pressing environmental challenges of the mining industry. To manage tailings in a technical, environmental and economical viable way, the cemented paste backfill (CPB) technology has been proposed. Cemented paste backfill (CPB) technology guarantees the local disposal of mine tailings while providing structural consolidation and support to underground mines and galleries. This study presents a chemometric approach to the development of optimized CPB formulations, focusing on minimizing cement consumption while meeting technical criteria of strength development and pumpability. Compressive strength was evaluated as primary response variable, and a mixture-process design has been applied. The experimental design allowed to obtain optimized CPB mixtures with compressive strength superior to 1 MPa with minimal cement content (8.75 wt.%). The performance of the selected CPB formulation was further characterized by examining its rheological properties (yield stress and viscosity) and initial setting time, with such characterization results being benchmarked with CPB formulations reported in literature. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of multivariate chemometric techniques in CPB design, showcasing substantial potential for reducing the environmental impacts and material costs of backfilling operations.