Real-time monitoring for structural health, public safety, and risk management of mine tailings dams

Hui, S.; Charlebois, L.; Sun, Colin

doi:10.1139/cjes-2017-0186

Cited by 24 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(11 reference statements)

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“…It is important to emphasize that the methodology proposed by the standard registers and requires the effective participation of the top management of the mining company, which is a fundamental factor for the success of risk management. Management commitment is the key factor in the risk management framework (Hui et al, 2017) Another relevant factor that risk management proposes is to provide, when it is implemented as recommended by the standard, the transparency of results through communication to stakeholders, especially to the external public, where it will have information about what types of risks and how they are being treated. More importantly, what are the risks to the dam, and what the mining company is assuming, i.e., what is the mining company's appetite for the tailings dam?…”

Section: Discussion Of the Results For Tailings Damsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of ISO 31000 standard on tailings dam safety

Cruz

Rodovalho

2019

REM, Int. Eng. J.

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Tailings dam safety is a frequent subject of discussion during mining project development. However, due to recent accidents with these structures, this issue has become even more prominent. A highlighted point is the risk management, which can be defined as the identification, analysis and maintenance of risks at acceptable levels during the design, construction and operation phases. Therefore, this article aims to present the direct application of ISO 31000: Risk Management applied to the safety management of tailings dams. Although not widespread, this standard brings guidelines and principles for the safety management of dams that will contribute to manage the risks associated with these structures in a systematic and effective way.

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Section: Discussion Of the Results For Tailings Damsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of ISO 31000 standard on tailings dam safety

Cruz

Rodovalho

2019

REM, Int. Eng. J.

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“…The main failure modes of earth dams are piping and leakage from the dam body, foundation problems, and water overflow over the dam which can be identified by proper behavior analysis [34]. In a dam construction project, the instrumenting and stability analysis could be divided in four general phases: planning, construction, initial drainage, and operation.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Instrumented Health Monitoring of an Earth Dam

et al. 2020

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This work evaluates the stability of the Boostan earth dam by investigating its long-term performance and interpreting the measured data. To measure the dam response, several sensitive locations are instrumented. This process includes measuring various quantities such as pore water pressure, water level, and internal stress ratios using inspection devices such as ordinary and Casagrande piezometers, and total pressure cells. The recorded data shows that the pore pressure is in good agreement with the initial (stable) design condition. The installed piezometers show that the drainage is efficient, and the water table in the body is adequate. The instrument also shows a reasonable horizontal stress in the dam body. Overall, the condition of the case study dam is assessed to be normal. The results of this case report can be used as a guide in similar dams for instrumented health monitoring.

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“…Table 2 enumerates several parameters of interest, changes in which are characteristic of behavioral changes in the dam system. The identification of undesirable behaviors is key to assessing the risk of failure [14]. It is not difficult to infer that each tailing dam failure involves engineering and human factors, and that these factors can be eliminated by; proper design and management procedures, stringent observations and measurements of dam behaviors and responses.…”

Section: Failure Modes Of Tailings Dams and Safety Monitoring Requirementioning

confidence: 99%

Dam Safety: Monitoring of Tailings Dams and Safety Reviews

Adamo¹,

Al‐Ansari²,

Sissakian³

et al. 2020

Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering

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The awareness to tailings dam safety monitoring and reviews has increased by the catastrophes resulting from failures of such dams worsened by increasing tailings waste and construction of larger dams. The losses born by the mining industry from high costs of compensations and environmental rehabilitation work have brought this matter into focus. In the present article the need for safety monitoring programs of tailings dam is highlighted and mode of failures and factors leading to them are described. Basic principles of such programs are investigated with all phenomena needing observation described and their impacts explained. As in conventional dams this work is carried out by visual inspections and use of similar methods and instruments. In similar manners in both types of dams’ observation and measurements are done for measuring seepage water quantity and quality, phreatic surface level and pore pressure and total earth pressure values in addition to deformation measurements; and all are done by similar devices and methods such as weirs, piezometers, inclinometers, settlement plates and geodetic surveying. Basic differences between safety monitoring systems of the two types of dam, however, are presented in a tabular form. The continuity of safety monitoring of tailings dams is emphasized not only during the long construction phase but also after that in the abandonment and closure phase which can last indefinitely in order to watch for possible adverse effects on the environment and ecosystem due to the winds eroding and carrying of poisonous tailings contents, in addition to contaminated seepage water entering surface water streams and ground water. Justifications for using real time monitoring systems for recording and transmitting all data to the control center are presented with emphasis given on savings in both labor and time and need for the discovery of warning signs enabling raising earlier the alarm of possible failure or incident and the early taking of preventive measures. In this article it is argued that, in spite of the large investment of installing and running cost of comprehensive dam safety monitoring systems in tailings dams, such costs are justified as they form only a small percentage of the total investment in the tailings facilities projects, and may save huge costs if failure does happen. Such systems may be considered as an additional insurance against such events.

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Real-time monitoring for structural health, public safety, and risk management of mine tailings dams

Cited by 24 publications

References 11 publications

Application of ISO 31000 standard on tailings dam safety

Application of ISO 31000 standard on tailings dam safety

Instrumented Health Monitoring of an Earth Dam

Dam Safety: Monitoring of Tailings Dams and Safety Reviews

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