If I could send a message back to a younger version of myself, I would have a lot to say to me. First, I’d tell myself to[…]

Most of the time, engineers calculate “factors of safety” for their designs. A factor of safety tells you how many times safer a design is than is[…]

My good friend, Jagrut Jathal has asked me the following questions: 1. Are upstream tailings dams really to blame for the recent incidents in Brazil? Despite the[…]

This is just a very brief follow-up to the two previous parts of this blog. As I stated at the conclusion of Part 2, “In next week’s[…]

As I was saying, I began to develop a slope stability model.  What is a slope stability model, you may ask.  Well, it’s pretty much what it sounds like.  Some[…]

A website provides a database of world-wide tailings dams failures from 1915 to present (https://worldminetailingsfailures.org/).  That website indicates that they support global research in tailings failure root cause, loss[…]

On January 25, 2019, the Córrego do Feijão Dam 1 collapsed at the Vale iron ore mine near Brumadinho in Brazil, releasing 11 million metric tons of[…]

WHEN A TAILINGS FACILITY FAILS When a tailings facility fails, lives are impacted; families are impacted. When a tailings facility fails, the environment suffers; communities can be[…]