Lessons learned from analysis of los frailes tailing dam failure

Abstract

Tailing dams are used to store mining tailings as uneconomic fraction of an ore after separating the valuable fraction. Tailing dams are mostly hazardous. Therefore, release of a large amount of tailings could lead to serious and long term ecological effects with very high cleanup costs. A literature survey shows that the main causes of tailing dam failure are poor design, improper site, irresponsibility and lack of control. To avoid of tailing dam failure awareness about the root causes and the severity of impacts on environment and human health is very important. This study is focused on a case to identify the causes as a base for proposing some important safety factors to prevent failure of tailing dams. The past experiences show that efforts should be put on prevention rather than reacting after the event.