Tailings storage facilities, failures and disaster risk

Abstract

Mining generates 13 billion tonnes per year of potentially toxic wet slurry waste, called tailings, commonly deposited in tailings storage facilities (TSF). Since 1915, 257 TSF failures have occurred, releasing a total of ~250 million m3 of tailings, destroying areas up to ~5,000 km2, killing an estimated 2,650 people and impacting ~317,000 people through displacement, property damage, and risks to livelihoods and health. In this Review, we provide an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the causes, effects and response to TSF failures, applying a disaster risk reduction framework. TSF failures can occur owing to earthquakes, overtopping, weak foundations and liquefaction, among other mechanisms. The severities and volumes of TSF failures have increased since the year 2000, owing to increasing mine waste generation from the exploitation of larger, lower-grade deposits. Despite the increasingly severe impacts, the mining industry has been hesitant to use the term ‘disaster’ to analyse TSF failure, presumably to avoid liability. TSF failures should be considered as disasters when they cause severe disruption to the functioning of ecological and social systems. Future research should build on attempts to link tailings facility locations to situated risk factors by improving spatial and time series analysis, reducing reliance on corporate disclosures, and increasing the visibility of priority locations and patterns of concern. Mine tailings are voluminous and often toxic wastes, whose management is a global safety and sustainability challenge. This Review summarizes the major tailings storage facility disasters and impacts, emphasizing the urgent need for risk reduction approaches for management and policy.