How to Create Emergency Preparedness and Response Capability for a TSF Failure
Time & Location
Sunday, November 10, 2024 – Full Day
The Westin Westminster
Course Description
The course will be highly interactive and require enthusiastic participation from the trainees. The objective is to give a clear understanding for what GISTM Principle 13 and 14 wants to achieve and how to reach there.
– A chronology of the causes of TSF failures.
– What is an emergency and what is a crisis, and how does it threaten the mining company and the surroundings?
– What are the dangers of a TSF failure? [This will flow along the line of Dam failure assessment – Failure Impact Assessment
– Consequence category assessment – and lead to an image of the Danger of a TSF failure.]
– Case study, good and bad responses to emergencies caused by TSF failure.
– Roles and responsibilities pertaining to emergency preparedness and emergency response. [Daily operation – emergency. In the company and external to the company.]
– What does compliance with the GISTM and MAC 3.2 pertaining to emergency preparedness and response and long-term recovery require. [Outcome: Plan; Organisation; Competency]
– How is a response to an emergency, caused by a TSF failure built up? What are the critical elements?
– Coordination: What is it and how is it implemented? – How to meet these requirements and maintain the capability.
– What does a good EPRP look like.
Presenters
Scott McNicoll, Technical Director – Tailings and Mine Rehabilitation, GHD
Olle Wennstrom, Technical Director Crisis & Emergency Management, GHD
Edgar Salas Pabon, GHD
Tailings Geotechnics: Advances and perspectives
Time & Location
Sunday, November 10, 2024 – Full Day
The Westin Westminster
Course Description
This course discusses recent advances and future perspectives in tailings geotechnics, emphasizing their role in the design, construction, and operation of tailings storage facilities. Discussion topics include tailings engineering, fundamentals of static/cyclic liquefaction, characterization of mine tailings at different scales (i.e., laboratory, field), and seismic design aspects of tailings storage facilities.
The course aims to present recent methodologies and how they are being implemented in the engineering of tailings storage facilities; hence, it assumes that participants have familiarity with the area of tailings geotechnics.
Presenters
Jorge Macedo, Frederick Olmsted Early Career Professor, Georgia Tech
Christopher Bareither, Associate Professor, Colorado State University
Jonathan Bray, Professor, University of California Berkeley
Scott Olson, Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Lessons Learned from Brazil Technical, Environmental and Social Auditing
Time & Location
Sunday, November 10, 2024 – Full Day
The Westin Westminster
Course Description
Following the Fundão Dam failure in 2015, Brazilian Authorities started a program to audit the mining companies’ operations, addressing the social and environmental repercussions, ensuring adherence to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) agreements, and complying with regulatory reforms. After more than 8 years, today, the program is one of the most extensive and established Independent Audit Program of tailing storage facilities (TSF) and the mining sector globally. Brazil Independent Technical, Environmental and Social Audit Program has received two major awards in 2023, including the 2023 ESG Impact Initiative of the Year Award at the Resourcing Tomorrow Outstanding Achievement Awards and the National Award from the Conselho Nacional do Ministério Público (CNMP) of Brazil.
This workshop aims to instruct attendees on the lessons learned from technical, environmental, and social auditing of tailings storage facilities and reservoirs in Brazil. Participants will gain valuable lessons from real-world experiences. The workshop will provide an overview of the auditing process, define the responsibilities of each party, provide a deep dive into lessons learned from technical, environmental, and social aspects of the work, and discuss a roadmap for transformation towards responsible mining. At the workshop, participants will get to know the lessons learned from the most structured and long-lasting independent mining audit program in the world, mapping and categorizing the main environmental, social, governance, and technical risks through the life cycle of a TSF. The results and lessons learned from the Brazil case will be compared with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the main Global Industries Standards. In addition, the workshop will provide insight into the challenges involved with auditing, covering the interaction between owners, EORs, and auditors.
The workshop will end with an interactive panel discussion, with the goal of assessing Brazil’s approach to auditing and its effectiveness in improving the tailings management culture in Brazil. Participants will leave with actionable insights and a deeper understanding of their roles in ensuring safety, environmental protection, and responsible resource utilization.
Presenters
Masood Kafash, AECOM, USA
Vicente Mello, AECOM, Brazil
Caio Prado, AECOM, Brazil
Luiz Eduardo Farias Villas Boas, AECOM, Brazil
Rui Feijao, AECOM, Brazil
Alessandro Nasser, AECOM, Brazil
Alex Castro, AECOM, Brazil
Edianir Bonatti, AECOM, Brazil
Developing Mine Waste Professionals Symposium
Time & Location
Sunday, November 10, 2024 – Half Day
The Westin Westminster
Course Description
This, new to the conference, symposium is specifically tailored to those with between 0.5 and 10-years of mine waste experience.
This course has been developed for professionals from across the mine waste industry sectors (i.e. those working for owners, designers, academics, regulators, etc.). The content will be interactive, with a focus on discussions and topics related to career development, soft-skills development and key mine waste concepts to understand as a developing professional.
Key outcomes for attendees include:
– Understanding of the skills and attributes required for tailings industry professionals, with guidance on how to develop them
– Awareness and influence of current trends in the mine waste industry
– Appreciation of career opportunities within the mine waste industry
– Relationship/network development
It is the facilitators hope that similar symposia will become a staple aspect of the Tailings and Mine Waste Conference in the future with a rotating and diverse group of speakers every year. As such this first symposium represent a great opportunity to influence the future direction for your peers.
Presenters
Parnian Azhdari, Freeport-McMoRan
Jean Kugel, BGC Engineering
David Barsi, University of Alberta
Joseph Scalia, Colorado State University
Caius Priscu, University of British Columbia
Martyn Willan, WSP Canada
Sophie Bainbridge, WSP Canada
Satellite InSAR Monitoring of Tailings Dams: Practical Perspectives from Case Study Applications
Time & Location
Sunday, November 10, 2024 – Half Day
The Westin Westminster
Course Description
This collaborative workshop will provide a practical overview of how satellite InSAR is being implemented in tailings dam monitoring programs, how the data is being interpreted by end-users, how technical challenges are being addressed, and how InSAR continues to develop/advance as a remote sensing monitoring technology. The course will be structured into three main sections: Mine Owners, Engineers of Record (EoRs), and InSAR Data Analysts/Providers. Using case study experiences, the presentations will deliver insights into InSAR data interpretation and applicability.
The key objectives of this course are as follows:
– Listen to Owners’ and EoRs’ perspectives on the following topics:
(i) Requirements of InSAR data (e.g., when InSAR data matters and when it does not; how InSAR data quality is evaluated)
(ii) How InSAR has been integrated into TSF monitoring programs (e.g. Calibration of modelled deformations against InSAR data; application in TARPs)
(iii) Reliance on InSAR as a failure prediction tool (e.g. expectations, accuracy vs. false alarms)
(iv) Applicability to active, closed, and legacy sites
(v) How InSAR has provided value in both site-level and portfolio-wide decision making to improve governance
(vi) Public disclosure of conclusions from InSAR data on TSFs
– Listen to perspectives from InSAR data providers/analysts on the following topics:
(i) Recommendations on satellite data sources depending on resolution, feasibility, and availability (e.g. TerraSAR-X vs. Sentinel-1)
(ii) General approach for processing InSAR data (including automated vs. tailor-made, case-specific processing)
(iii) Value-added detection criteria (e.g. displacement trends, anomalous detections)
(iv)Technical challenges & remedies related to site conditions (e.g. snow, vegetation, water cover)
(v)Future developments (e.g. satellites, pairing with other satellite data indices/parameters, machine learning, artificial intelligence, visualization, API integration)
(vi) Industry and commercial risks
(vii) Ongoing R&D and research initiatives
By these real-world perspectives, the course aims to provide a valuable, practical synthesis and guide of how InSAR has been used, and should be used, as an effective, reliable monitoring tool for tailings dams.
Presenters
Nahyan Rana, Engineering Geologist, Klohn Crippen Berger
Scott Martens, Director of Tailings Engineering, Teck Resources and Adjunct Professor, University of Alberta
Imran Gillani and Theo Gerritsen, Principal Advisor of Tailings and Dams & Principal Tailings Engineer, Rio Tinto
Justin Willis, Principal Tailings Engineer, BHP
Rick Friedel, Principal, Senior Geotechnical Engineer, Klohn Crippen Berger
Giacomo Falorni, Technical Director, TRE Altamira
Jon Leighton, Director of Operations, 3vGeomatics
Edward Sage and Hayley Larkin, Geospatial Solutions Specialist and InSAR Commercial Lead, Viridien
Davide Colombo, Business Development Manager, GEOAPP