May 19, 2020

Tailing Pond Failures Increase

Tailing Pond Failures Increase

May 19, 2020

Predictably, as many mining operations age, the number of tailing pond failures has increased significantly. The causes of these failures fairly evenly distributed: Seepage (21.6%); Overtopping (20.6%) Foundation Failure (17.3%); Earthquake (17.0%) and Other (23.5%). In addition, due to the recent pandemic economic downturn, it is expected that the number of abandoned mines and tailings ponds will increase dramatically. Ecovap’s enhanced evaporation technology allows these tailing ponds to occupy a small fraction of their normal land footprint and a dramatic reduction in risk of failure. For mining operations that are scheduled to be shut-down, ECOVAP’s ability to rapidly dewater the pond at >59x the normal evaporation rate facilitates a permanent remediation solution the remaining 1-5% of slurry and dried toxins can be dry-bagged and/or sent to an appropriate disposal site.

Review Article, A Comprehensive Review on Reasons for Tailings Dam Failures Based on Case History: Click

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