Safer tailings storage facilities (TSFs) - or tailings dams - can be achieved when mine owners, contractors and engineering consultants work closely together.
Mining executives today require more assurance that their tailings dams are safe, with controls becoming much stricter. Greater transparency id also being demanded by other stakeholders such as investors and communities, said Linda Spies, SRK Consulting senior geotechnical engineer.
“After several hundred lives were lost in two well-publicised tailings dam failures in Brazil in 2015 and 2019, awareness of tailings dam risks has been raised within the mining industry and in the public eye globally. These latest failures were especially significant insofar as senior management at the mining companies were for the first time being implicated directly with charges of manslaughter and environmental damage.
SRK Contributor:
Linda Spies, Adriaan Meintjes, Sheila Imrie
