Mining in focus
In the past few years, there has been renewed interest in finding ways to make
tailings storage facilities (TSFs) safer, following very significant failures at facilities
like Mount Polley in Canada and Fundão in Brazil, writes Adriaan Meintjes.
T
formed — that led to our involvement in
designing under-drains for greater stability at
Impala dams 3 and 4. These designs continue
to function as planned more than 40 years
later, and the future will continue to demand
such innovations as the bar for TSF safety is
constantly raised.
dams were initially very small when mining
first started in the 1870s, reflecting the limited
scale of the mining itself. Essentially, the
tailings disposal practice was uncontrolled,
with tailings just pumped into rivers, streams,
and lakes.
Sand dumps then developed, which were
constructed in an almost dry manner. When
process plants became bigger, however,
the tailings process waste was
transported in a tailing’s slurry, as
Evolution of tailings dams
To look back briefly on the evolution of
tailings dam engineering in South Africa,
his interest comes not a moment too
soon, opening exciting opportunities
for engineers and scientists to bring
both experience and technology to the
daunting task of evaluating and mitigating a
wide range of potential risk factors inherent to
TSFs and rock dumps.
Tailings dam safety has always been close
to our hearts at SRK, as it was the failure of
the TSF at Union Corporation’s Bafokeng
mine in 1974 — the year that SRK was
www.miningmirror.co.za
Urbanisation have meant that less land is available
for TSFs, so these tailings dams had to cover a
smaller footprint.
MARCH 2019 MINING MIRROR [19]