Although the number of tailings dam failures have generally fallen since the 1960s, the scale and increased capacity of modern tailings dams means the impact and scale of a failure is far more significant. Are you doing enough to monitor your tailings dam effectively?
Due to the scale of potential failures, the need for monitoring has become more important to prevent:
- Downstream loss of life
- Ecological disaster, and
- Operational disruption
Monitoring plans are invariably required by mining regulators as part of their licence to operate and environmental bonds are sized according to a mine’s monitoring system.
Position Partners market development manager Andrew Jones outlines the trends of tailings dam failures over time and the options available today for monitoring systems that help to mitigate risk.