Abstract
After the collapse of several mining waste facilities over the last decade, the mining industry was forced to raise its standards to ensure the safety of mine waste facilities.
As a result, the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) was developed. This standard sets out clear guidelines and expectations for companies on managing these facilities safely to prevent tailings facility failures and ensure a high level of safety, governance, and environmental protection. The implementation of the GISTM reinforced the role of the Engineer of Record (EoR), who is responsible for ensuring that the design, operation, construction, and closure of the tailings storage facilities (TSFs) are performed in accordance with the applicable regulations and original design intent. However, since most tailings storage facilities (TSFs) were already operational worldwide, most EoRs had little or no opportunity to correct legacy issues regarding the design or construction stages.
This paper presents the experience of SRK Consulting (SRK) with the Salares Norte project owned by Gold Fields. Salares Norte is a greenfield gold-silver project located in the Atacama Region of Chile, a high mountainous environment (over 4,000 m a.s.l.) with extremely arid conditions and high seismicity. At Salares Norte, the filtered TSF is located on the waste storage facility (WSF) comprising compacted waste rock sourced from the pre-strip phase of the open pit mine. SRK, the appointed EoR, has been involved from the early stages of design to construction.
This article summarises the main design aspects of the project and the challenges that arise during the TSF construction stage related to applying the GISTM requirements with the industry's current practices. Finally, knowledge acquired from SRK, and Gold Fields related to the application of the Engineering of Record (EoR) service during the construction phase are shared.
