Danger and Avoidance of Damage Related to Tailings Dams and Tailings Ponds

Trends in the stewardship of tailings dams

Tailings impoundments frequently represent the most significant environmental liability associated with mining projects, both during the operational and decommissioning phases of a project. A spate of recent and well-publicized incidents involving tailings impoundments has placed the mining industry in general, and those responsible for tailings impoundment design and safety in particular, unde...

Geo-Seismic Environmental Aspects Affecting Tailings Dams Failures

Seismic performance evaluations of tailings dams are essential for characterizing the geoenvironmental risks posed by these earthen structures, which should include the geotechnical hazards implied by slope instability failure, free board loss and the potential release of contaminants. The observed damage is more important when liquefaction occurs on the dam body and foundation, which often lea...

Superiority of Filtered Tailings Storage Facility to Conventional Tailings Impoundment in Southern Rainy Regions of China

In order to evaluate the superiority of a filtered tailings storage facility (FTSF) to conventional tailings impoundment in the southern rainy regions of China (SRRC), the tailings slurry leakage and pollution accident occurring at the wet tailings dam (WTD) of Yinshan were analyzed, the properties of the tailings were tested in a laboratory, and the possibility of tailings liquefaction was eva...

Identification of possible new failure mechanisms for the collapse of tailings dams

Accidental Water Pollution Risk Analysis of Mine Tailings Ponds in Guanting Reservoir Watershed, Zhangjiakou City, China

Over the past half century, a surprising number of major pollution incidents occurred due to tailings dam failures. Most previous studies of such incidents comprised forensic analyses of environmental impacts after a tailings dam failure, with few considering the combined pollution risk before incidents occur at a watershed-scale. We therefore propose Watershed-scale Tailings-pond Pollution Ris...