Abstract

Tailings storage facilities (TSFs) are being built globally for containing the chief solid waste stream from mining industry. Catastrophic TSF breach accidents have occurred frequently since the beginning of the 21st century, causing severe impacts on the environment, economy and community safety. The recent example is the 2019 Brumadinho accident in Brazil that released 12 million m3 of tailings and killed more than 249 people. The foreknowledge of the TSF breach run out overland flow can be crucial to prevent or minimize possible losses. Using the Digital Surface Model (DSM) terrain data and the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) numerical method, this study proposed a procedure to predict the routings of hypothetical TSF breach run out flow over downstream complex terrain. A case study of a planning TSF site in Guizhou Province of China was carried out to evaluate its applicability. The results suggested that the maximum routing distance of the TSF breach run out flow was 1.45 km. At 240 s, the run out flow began to impact the downstream viaduct piers with the maximum submerged depth of 3.3 m and the maximum impact force of 21.8 kPa. Essential protective measures were recommended before the TSF site construction. The proposed procedure is then recommended for the safety management of the TSFs globally.

Highlights

  • A tailings storage facility (TSF) is an essential structure in mining industry built for the purpose of storing unwanted and currently uneconomical solid waste tailings behind one or more tailings dams

  • The maximum routing distance of the TSF breach run out flow was calculated to be 1.45 km

  • Catastrophic tailings dam breach accidents highlighted the importance of TSF risk assessment and emergency management

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Summary

Introduction

A tailings storage facility (TSF) is an essential structure in mining industry built for the purpose of storing unwanted and currently uneconomical solid waste tailings behind one or more tailings dams. Unlike water-retaining dams, where construction materials usually consist of concrete, rock or soil, tailings dams are mostly being built using tailings themselves in order to minimize costs [1]. On 25 January 2019, the Brumadinho dam accident at Córrego de Feijão iron ore mine in Minas Gerais, Brazil, released almost its complete holdings of 12 million m3 of tailings. On 5 November 2015, another catastrophic TDB accident occurred in Minas Gerais, Brazil [4]. The Fundão tailings dam of Samarco iron mine collapsed and released 32 million m3 of tailings. On 4 June 2018, the Cieneguita mine tailing dam in Chihuahua, Mexico, collapsed, released 439,000 m3 of tailings and dam material that travelled 29 km downstream and at least 3 workers weredead [4]

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