Tailings Dam Breach Analysis: A Review of Methods, Practices, and Uncertainties

Recent catastrophic failures of tailings storage facilities have highlighted the critical roles that dam engineers can play in ensuring public safety, and have motivated the mine waste industry to assess and improve the practice of tailings dam breach analysis (TDBAs). As industry moves towards a standard of no catastrophic failures, it is critical that practitioners, owners, and operators have a unified understanding when conducting TDBA, in order to provide a high level of confidence within communities and environments surrounding operational or closed facilities. Currently, uncertainties exist surrounding the industry’s standard practice in conducting appropriate TDBA. This paper provides a summary of the currently available approaches and models for TDBA and when it is appropriate to use a particular method. A critical review of key challenges of TDBA (release volume estimate, hydrograph development, and routing the breach hydrograph downstream) is also provided. This paper aims to be a thorough summary of what is known about TDBA and a reference source for engineers and researchers.