• Corpus ID: 42486740

Tailings Dam Failures: A Review of the Last One Hundred Years

@inproceedings{Azam2010TailingsDF,
  title={Tailings Dam Failures: A Review of the Last One Hundred Years},
  author={Shahid Azam and Qiren Li},
  year={2010}
}

• S. Azam, Qiren Li
• Published 20 July 2010
• Environmental Science

one hundred years is estimated to be 1.2%. This is more than two orders of magnitude higher than the failure rate of conventional water retention dams that is reported to be 0.01% (ICOLD, 2001). The mining industry has experienced several significant dam failures in recent history: Merriespruit (South Africa), 1994; Omai (Guyana), 1994; Los Frailes (Spain), 1998; Baia Mare (Romania), 2000; and Aitik (Sweden), 2000. An acute societal concern over such events has resulted in enforcing stringent safety criteria at mining operations in some parts of the globe. However, the standard of public reporting varies considerably from country to country and from region to region. A large number of tailings dam failure incidents remain unreported or lack basic information when reported. This has seriously hindered the development of safety regulations in such areas. Despite insufficient data, a generalized statistical analysis is exigently needed to help minimize tailings dam failure events.