ON DEMAND - Mine Tailings vs the Environment: Are We Really Getting Better at Managing Risks and Impacts?

Tailings are a substantial solid waste produced during mining – requiring extensive engineering design, assessment and management to achieve environmentally safe storage. There have been, however, some severe tailings dam failures in recent years – leading to difficult questions about how successful the mining industry and regulators have been in managing tailings dam safely. In addition, tailings dams are always getting bigger, driven by larger project scales and declining ore grades.

Given this, it is worth reviewing the current state of tailings management in Australia – looking into the key questions of engineering design, environmental monitoring, risk assessment, decommissioning and rehabilitation, and regulatory practice. In other words, tailings dams have become super-sized but have our approaches to managing them? Are we leaving risky legacies for future generations or are we achieving modern, safe storage outcomes?

This talk will review the current state of play for tailings management in Australia, looking at key drivers of tailings, environmental issues which have to be considered (especially acidic drainage risks), key regulatory aspects to consider, how risk assessment needs to evolve to address current and future liabilities, and especially how a successful tailings management approach should look to communities concerned about such matters. After all, sustainability is increasingly demanding transparency as well as accountability, which is good for regulators, industry and communities alike.

Key learnings and points covered

· Review and current state of play for tailings management in Australia;

· Assessing and managing environmental, social and financial risks for tailings management, including rehabilitation liabilities.

Highlighted teachings and reason to attend

· Increasing scale of tailings dams in Australia and typical approaches to engineering design and environmental monitoring and management

· Understanding of environmental and social risks, including key case studies, associated with tailings management

· Strengths and weaknesses in current regulatory approaches and the need to better account for risks and liabilities associated with tailings management

· Approaches being adopted internationally for tailings management, including responsible tailings management, and how sustainability-style reporting can help improve transparency and accountability

The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. We will send a unique access link to registrants on the morning of the event.

If you cannot attend on the day, you can still get the benefit, as the session will be recorded and available to view later.

If you have any issues in registering, please make sure you complete all the boxes or all the information filled in automatically is right. Please do not hesitate to contact us at events@landandgroundwater for any assistance if issues persist.

About the Speaker

Gavin Mudd
Associate Professor
RMIT University

Gavin Mudd is a renowned global expert on the environmental sustainability of modern mining and brings together a unique set of multidisciplinary skills and knowledge to explore the challenges that the modern mining industry, governments, and communities are collectively facing. His mining research work includes environmental impacts, waste rock and tailings management, acid mine drainage, rehabilitation, mineral resource assessments, critical metals and minerals and sustainability metrics. The research always includes comprehensive and rich data sets. He is an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, where he has collaborated closely with Associate Professor Simon Jowitt (UNLV) in recent years on the geologic aspects underpinning the environmental issues facing modern mining.