Friction: Edition 3 | November 2022
FROM THE EDITOR
Devastating tailings dam failures in recent years have stirred up a renewed focus on their design, construction, and management from operational through to closure and post-mine closure phases.
The introduction of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) aims to strengthen and improve global tailings dam governance through dynamic processes applied to the full lifecycle of facilities. This approach has been a significant, and overdue, step forward.
The Mining Association of Canada’s sustainability framework Toward Sustainable Mining (TSM) and other supporting Environmental and Social Governance and Social Responsibility (ESG/SR) policies also significantly support the sustainability goals advocated by the GISTM.
Improving dam stewardship of tailings dam and mine waste management creates new challenges for the industry. This edition looks at these dynamic changes applied to the full lifecycle of tailings dam management.
This edition will be our last for 2022. We wish everyone well over the Christmas period and end-of-year break. Stay safe, and we will be back in February with more news and events.
We also continue to share updates, events and information from geotechnical professionals and rock engineers in mining. If you’d like to contribute an article, profile or highlight events, please contact Friction via editor@friction.news.
Regards,
Tim Cartledge
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Failure is not an option - reconsidering tailings dams
Tailings dams were once almost an afterthought in the design and management of mines. But a series of high-profile tailings dam failures and the resultant scrutiny from media, investors and insurers has led to significant changes in how the dams are designed, operated, monitored and managed over their entire lifecycle.
Friction sat down with world-leading tailings dam expert, Professor David Williams from The University of Queensland to find out how things are changing for the better.
You can view a comprehensive, but incomplete, chronology of tailings dam failures here.
Petra Diamonds reports tailings dam burst in Tanzania
Production was suspended at the Williamson mine in Tanzania after a tailings facility wall burst, the company said. The eastern wall of the Tailings Storage facility was “breached” resulting in flooding away from the mine pit which has extended into “certain areas outside of the mine lease area”, the company said.
NEWS, PUBLICATIONS AND UPDATES
Rockfall trajectory reconstruction
Many examples of rockfall simulation software provide great flexibility to the user at the expense of a hardly achievable parameter unification. In this article, François Noël, Michel Jaboyedoff, Andrin Caviezel, Clément Hibert, Franck Bourrier, and Jean-Philippe Malet propose an alternative cost-effective and flexible computer-assisted videogrammetric 3D trajectory reconstruction method.
Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering for Nuclear Waste Disposal
The second episode of the International Interactive Technical Talk podcast was released earlier this month, covering Geomechanical and Geotechnical Engineering for Nuclear Waste Disposal.
3D slope stability analysis for late-stage slope design optimization options
Recently presented at Slope Stability 2022 in Tuscon, this paper looks at Venetia Open Pit Mine, which after 30 years of production, will be transitioning to underground production in Q4 2022. This presents an interesting conundrum: aggressively maximise pit ore recovery and short-term revenue or follow a more conservative, high reliability slope design and defer ore to later underground recovery.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Make sure you check our advents calendar for upcoming conferences, submission dates and other events that will be of interest to our industry.
HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE?
Friction is about connecting our industry together. If you have an article, paper or insight to share we'd love to hear from you. Find out how you can contribute to Friction here.
