Author(s)

E. De Souza

Abstract

The failure of a number of waste dumps and tailings dams over the last decade has directed public attention to the potential hazard and severe environmental and safety impact created by mine tailings disposal, and has brought concerns on the need for more appropriate design, construction and management of tailings impoundments. Although past engineering research efforts carried out within the mining industry have developed unique strategies that normally result in stable tailings dam conditions, the effective and economic design, construction and maintenance of safe mine tailings dams still constitute a major technical challenge to industry. As a manifested contribution to this continuing effort, this paper introduces the centrifuge as a modern and unique design and verification tool which provide viable solutions to the continuing effort towards the construction of safe mine tailings dams. Keywords: tailings dams, waste dumps, centrifuge modelling, stability design. 1 Introduction Tailings dam failures generally result in catastrophic ecological disasters. Failure of an embankment generally results in liquefaction of the unconsolidated tailings mass, which can flow many miles in the surroundings. Because of the potential hazard and severe environmental and safety impact created by mine tailings disposal, industry has taken leadership in developing extensive research towards improved tailings dam design and management techniques that address both the safety and the environmental issues of tailings disposal. The mining industry is more and more expected to achieve high environmental performance in their operations, and high design standards are

Keywords

tailings dams, waste dumps, centrifuge modelling, stability design