Tailings dam failures have resulted in disastrous environmental and human tragedies.

The
different tailings dam databases (ICOLD, WISE, World Mine Tailings Failures, CSP2) indicate that since
1915, a total of 257 failures have been recorded with circa 2.650 fatalities and 250 million m3 of
contaminated residues released to the environment. Almost 50% (115 million m3) of the released
volumes have been recorded after 2000, with circa 640 fatalities.

It is estimated that the economic impact (social and environmental) of a major tailings dam failure can
be between $750 million and $56 billion.

There are many examples where tailings dams have failed and caused catastrophic disasters such as
environmental pollution, ecosystem damage, and loss of life. The causes of mine tailings dam failure are
different as each failure is always site-specific, although common themes always emerge around:

- Poor site investigation

- Inappropriate engineering design
- Lack of risk assessment especially consequence analysis
- Deficient dam construction
- Operation and/or closure (often to save costs)

Characteristics that can be difficult to investigate at the design stage but may contribute to foundation
failure are:

- Sinkholes, old mine shafts, and weaknesses above active underground mine workings
- Localized features, including isolated karstic voids and preferential lava flows

Here are some examples of major incidents that happened in the last 20 years:

Vale dam disaster (Brazil, 2019)

Incident
On 25 January 2019, a tailings dam at the Vale S.A. Corrego do Feijao iron ore mine (Vale),
approximately 9 km East of Brumadinho, suffered a catastrophic failure. The dam released up to 12
million m3 of mudflow (i.e. the tailings dumped in the dam) that invested the mine offices, including a
canteen at the lunch time, and advanced downstream for a few kilometers impacting houses, farms,
roads and eventually reaching the Paraopepa River, the region’s main water course. At least 270 people
died and nearly 1,000 were displaced as a result of the dam collapse. The incident had an extensive
media coverage both in Brazil and internationally due to the life toll, the extensive environmental
impacts and the significant economic damages (many agricultural areas were affected or totally
destroyed and thousands of cattle, dairy cows and pigs killed). Interestingly, Vale experienced a similar
incident in November 2015, when a huge tailings dam operated by Brazilian mining company Samarco (a
joint venture between mining giants Vale and BHP Billiton) collapsed and a wave of 32 million m3 of
mining waste washed across the countryside of green valleys, villages and farmland. The waste - a liquid
mix of water, sands and clays – killed 19 people, destroyed villages, left hundreds homeless, and killed
fish and aquatic life as it flowed on down the bigger River Doce to the sea more than 600km away.
Vale was established in 1942 as government company and became a private company in 1997. It is one
of the major miners in the world, employing about 73,000 people and operating in 30 countries. The
company is listed on Sao Paulo, New York, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Paris and Madrid stock exchanges and in
2017 its market value was US$34Billion.
Aftermath
The consequences of this disaster for Vale S.A. were striking and are summarized below:
 On 28 January Vale stock price fell 24%, losing US$19 Billion in market capitalisation, the biggest
single day loss in Brazil stock exchange history, and its debt was downgraded to a rating of -BBB
by Fitch Rating.
 On 2 March 2019, Vale CEO (Fabio Schvartsman) and other 3 senior executives resigned  after
federal prosecutors investigating the fatal  mine bust requested their removal . In fact,
authorities raised the prospects of filing criminal charges against former executives as a
response to allegations that Vale S.A. had not only received warnings about the fragile state of
the dam but that it also exerted pressure on inspectors who certified it was safe.
 In the first quarter of 2019, Vale posted a $1.6bn loss driven by $4.5bn in “expenses related” to
the dam disaster, including provisions for a compensation programme and the decommissioning
of tailings dams, and $450m related to “operational stoppages” (e.g. US$3.2 Billion worth of
assets frozen and suspension of profitable ore mines potentially having the same dam issues).
However, in February 2021, the communities hit by the dam disaster got a $7bn payout.
Damage to Reputation and Brand Image. Prior to event, the company was regarded as a national
champion and a source of positive economic impact at regional and national level in the form of taxes,
royalties, employment and other factors. However, soon after the incident, Vale S.A. received all the
blame from government, regulators, host communities and general public and it eventually lost the
goodwill and trust it had before the event.

Aerial image before the accideent

Same image, after the accident

Ajka Alumina Plant Accident (Hungary, 2010)

Incident
On 4th October 2010, a levee breach of the sludge reservoir of the Hungarian MAL Aluminium Co. Ltd.
occurred in the west of Hungary, around 100 km from Budapest, at the Ajkai Timföldgyár alumina plant
in Ajka, Veszprém County.
The accident released approximately 1 million m3 of highly alkaline red sludge. The mud was released as
a 1–2 m (3–7 ft) wave, flooding several nearby localities, including the village of Kolontár and the town
of Devecser. The incident resulted in 10 casualties, while 286 persons had to be treated
by medical personnel, damaged 367 properties, and covered 1017 hectares land. About 40 km2 (15 mi2)
of land were initially affected. The spill reached the Danube on 7 October 2010.
MAL Hungarian Aluminium was a Hungarian company that was specializing in the production of
aluminium and related products. It was established in 1995 during the privatization of the Hungarian
aluminium industry. Utilizing the vast amount of economically producible bauxite the company has
grown to become one of the biggest industrial complexes, employing 6000 workers. 70-75% od the
company’s products are sold for West European export.

Aftermath
In 2013 the company underwent liquidation. The production facilities were all sold to IC Profil Ltd. in
2015, so no production was undertaken by the company after that time. The company has completed
the liquidation process in the late 2010s, and in 2020 some of the activities of the successor companies
moved from the Ajka site. As of October 2021, the website of MAL is shut down.
One year later, MAL Hungarian Aluminium company has been fined $647 million (472 million euros) for
environmental damages. Short after, Budapest set up a compensation fund for the victims, with many
claims still outstanding.
Responding to the disaster, the Hungarian government declared a state of emergency and evacuated
about 8,000 people. Over the following months, workers toiled to remove the mud from the flood plain
and doused the area with acid.
Today, monitoring shows lower toxicity than many had feared, but the levels are still dangerous.
Hundreds of hectares of land remain sealed off and cannot be used for cultivation.

The extent of the red sludge flood

Before and after disaster

Baia Mare tailings dam failure (Romania, 2000)

Incident
On January 30, a dam was breached ("broken") at the operations of the Aurul SA Company in Baia
Mare, northwest Romania. The result was a spill of about 100,000 m3 of liquid and suspended waste
containing about 50 to 100 tonnes of cyanide, as well as heavy metals including copper.
The breach was probably caused by a combination of design defects in the facilities used by Aurul,
unexpected operating conditions and bad weather.
Over a four-week period the combined spills travelled into the rivers Sasar, Lapus, Somes, Tisza and
Danube, through Romania into Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, and finally entered the Black Sea.
Approximately 2,000 kilometres of the Danube’s water catchment area were affected by the spill.
The spill traversed several ecologically sensitive and highly populated areas, with significant
transboundary implications. The Baia Mare failure created a 30- to 40-kilometre-long wave of
contaminants that wiped out the flora and the fauna of the central Tisza River. Plankton were killed
instantly by the plume; fish were killed in the plume or died soon after. In the Hungarian section of the
river, the impact was especially severe – it is estimated that 1 240 tonnes of fish were killed
(UNEP/OCHA 2000).
Aurul SA was a stock company jointly owned by Esmeralda, Exploration Limited, Australia, and Remin,
Romania. The company was established in 1992 and began operations at Baia Mare in May 1999

Aftermath
The consequences of this accident and are summarized below:

 The implications at the local, national and European level were significant with an impact on the
socio-economic environment, triggering the halting of mining activities in the field of extraction
of precious metals and polymetallic sulphide deposits.
 The guilty company went bankrupt and was consequently absolved of any sanctions that should
have been applied. Therefore, the unpaid amounts due to cyanide mining and accidents caused
using this technology are paid by all taxpayers, including those whose health suffered. These
amounts are far above the amount of profit that could be registered by a company.
 In Romania, the spill caused interruptions to the water supply of 24 municipalities and costs to
sanitation plants and industries because of interruptions in their production processes. The
wells were affected by the spill with cyanide levels nearly 80 times over permissible limits.
 Background information showed concentrations of arsenic and lead in the rivers Sasar, Lapus,
Somes and Tisza, at 100 to 1,000 times, respectively, above acceptable concentrations.

 In addition to the ecological disaster caused by this accident, the municipality of Baia Mare and
Romania suffered in terms of the media impact, being an extremely negative one. The accident
was categorized as one of the biggest ecological disasters in Europe, after Chernobyl.
The market value of the gold extracted from Baia Mare would have been approximately $50 million.
Numerous direct expenses were added to the Romanian state's initial investment of $6 million,
including $100 million in damages requested by Hungary.
A study on mine closure costs estimates the amounts needed to close a mine are between $16.1 and
$57 million. Either of the two options shows that the most effective solution in the case of Baia Mare
would have been the closing of the mines by the Romanian state and the subsequent development of
projects that would not have affected the environment.

The tailing dam at Baia Mare before the breach. No aerial photo was taken after the disaster.

Tisza river – dead fish after cyanide spill

Mount Polley Mine (Canada 2014)

Incident
On August 4th, 2014, a 4 km2 sized tailings pond full of toxic copper and gold mining waste breached ,
spilling an estimated 25 million m3 of tailings and wastewater into Polley Lake , Hazeltine Creek and
Quesnel Lake (snapping countless trees in its 50 m wide flow path), a source of drinking water and major
spawning grounds for sockeye salmon. The tailings storage facility stretched over a surface area of
approx. 2.4 km2. According to Mount Polley mine records filed with Environment Canada in 2013, there
were “326 tonnes of nickel, over 400 tonnes of arsenic, 177 tonnes of lead and 18,400 tonnes of copper
and its compounds placed in the tailings pond,” in 2012.
An investigation into the cause of the spill revealed mine engineers failed to account for glacial silt
underneath the tailings containment pond, leading to structural insufficiencies that caused the dam’s
collapse.
The Mount Polley Mine (the “Mine”), operated by Mount Polley Mining Corporation (MPMC; a wholly
owned subsidiary of Imperial Metals Corporation [Imperial Metals]), is an open pit copper-gold mine,
with an underground component that has the capacity to process 22,000 tonnes per day of ore.
The site was commissioned in June 1997. The Mine suspended operations in October 2001 due to low
metal prices, then reopened in December 2004 with mill production commencing again in March of
2005.

Aftermath
Engineering firms (builders of the dam) Knight Piesold and Amec Foster Wheeler agree to pay $ 81
million in damages to Imperial Metals Corp. for failure of Mount Polley mine dam.
Following the Mount Polley mine disaster, a local state of emergency was declared for the Cariboo
Regional District over drinking water contamination concerns. Mine operations were suspended for a
year following the breach and did not fully recommence until June 2016.
Clean up efforts have led to a reconstructed Hazeltine Creek, although the contaminated slurry that
made its way into Polley Lake and Quesnel Lake remains in the waterways. A drinking water ban was
lifted within weeks of the spill and regular water testing is being conducted by the B.C. government, the
Mount Polley mine, the University of Northern British Columbia and local residents.

The force of the spill widened the creek from about 1.5 meters to over 100 meters wide, according to
several people who have seen the area.
Hpakant jade mine disaster (Myanmar 2020)

Incident
On 2 July 2020, a major landslide at the Wai Khar jade mining site in the Hpakant area of Kachin State,
Myanmar, killed between 175 and 200 miners, more than 100 reported missing and 54 injured in the
country's deadliest-ever mining accident. Heavy rains triggered the collapse of a heap of mining waste,
which came tumbling down into a lake. This generated a 6.1-meter (20 ft) wave of tailings that buried
those working at the Wai Khar mine. The miners killed or injured by the landslide were independent
"jade pickers", who scavenge tailings from larger operators and who live in ramshackle quarters at the
base of large mounds of rubble.

Myanmar's jade industry supplies 70% to 90% of the world jade supply. The industry had become known
for its fatal accidents in the preceding years, with the previous deadliest accident in 2015 killing 116
people. While the government responded with promises to make reforms in the jade mining industry,
activists claim that little has been done in practice since then.
While Myanmar's official statistics for 2016–2017 put the jade trade value at $750 million, independent
estimates that include illegal mining put it at $15–31 billion worth per year. The industry is known for
frequent accidents at its mining sites. The largest jade mine in the world is at Hpakant in Kachin state.
An estimate 400,000 people work as freelance miners in northern Myanmar, and as of 2018 Myanmar
was ranked first among all countries in landslide fatalities.

Aftermath
Families of the deceased were provided approx. $2,500 in compensation by aid agencies and the
government. However, in order to receive compensation a body had to be recovered, no compensation
was provided to the families of the missing.
The Myanmar Army removed Kachin Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Nay Lin Tun and
another commander from their posts over the accident. The Myanmar government set up an
investigative body headed by Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation Ohn Win.
In the wake of the disaster, watchdog Global Witness issued a statement calling out the failure of the
government to address hazardous mining practices and calling on the government to "immediately
suspend large-scale, illegal and dangerous mining in Hpakant".

The aftermath of the landslide in Myanmar