After a deadly mining disaster in Brazil, investors lead a push for information about the giant dams that hold mining waste
By Alistair MacDonald, Kris Maher and Kim Mackrael Oct. 14, 2019 10:43 am ET EMBARRASS, Minn.—An earthen dam is set to rise behind the trees of Dan Ehman’s 120 woodland acres in northeastern Minnesota’s Iron Range, a region with close ties to mining for more than a century.
“We are allowing dams in the U.S. that countries in the developing world do not accept,” said Steve Emerman, the owner of Utah-based mining and groundwater consultants Malach Consulting. if { function loadCSS{function d{for;t?o.media=n||"all":setTimeout}var o=window.document.createElement,a=t||window.document.getElementsByTagName[0],i=window.document.styleSheets;return o.rel="stylesheet",o.href=e.trim,o.media="only x",a.parentNode.appendChild,d,o}window.loadCSS=loadCSS; } /* 4u Graphics Standalone */ @media all and { body.template-standalone:not .g-show-4u { display: block !important; max-width: 300px; } body.template-standalone:not .
The disclosures were the first warning for many residents that they were living near structures with problems. Hilda Fitzner, who lives in Thompson, said she heard about the stability issues from a friend’s Facebook post. “It caught me completely off guard,” she said. Both sections have a “very high” hazard rating, meaning a collapse could result in up to 100 deaths and significant environmental damage.
Miners have made changes since Brumadinho. Canadian-based gold miner Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. began bringing a specialist in tailings dams to its meetings with funds for the first time, CEO Sean Boyd said. In 1972, an upstream dam holding back coal mining waste collapsed in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, releasing 130 million gallons of slurry that killed 125 people, wiped out entire towns and left more than 4,000 people homeless—the worst dam failure in U.S. history.
Water Legacy cited Brazilian academic research that found that 66% of mining dam failures world-wide involved upstream tailings dams, and it pointed to a United Nations report that listed eight such failures between 2014 and October 2017 in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Israel and the U.S. if { function loadCSS{function d{for;t?o.media=n||"all":setTimeout}var o=window.document.createElement,a=t||window.document.getElementsByTagName[0],i=window.document.styleSheets;return o.rel="stylesheet",o.href=e.trim,o.media="only x",a.parentNode.appendChild,d,o}window.loadCSS=loadCSS; } /* 4u Graphics Standalone */ @media all and { body.template-standalone:not .wsj-ai2html-1548869644787show-4u, body.template-standalone:not .
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An undetected layer of clay or silt beneath a tailings dam can prove disastrous. In addition to being less sturdy than rock or sand, such materials drain poorly, allowing water to silently infiltrate the dam.The taller the dam, the greater the catastrophe if it fails. The steeper the dam, the greater the risk. For an upstream dam made from tailings themselves, engineers recommend a 25% gradient – flat enough to walk up.
The taller the dam, the greater the catastrophe if it fails. The steeper the dam, the greater the risk. For an upstream dam made from tailings themselves, engineers recommend a 25% gradient – flat enough to walk up. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials, a trade body that tries to improve U.S. dam safety, is considering recommending the addition of specific information about tailings facilities for the first time as it helps update the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s guidance on dam safety regulation. It was last updated in 2007 and is tentatively planned to be updated in late 2020.
In Queen Valley, Ariz., population 829, a March meeting to discuss a potential dam for a nearby mining project including a viewing of the video. About 300 people attended the event, sponsored by two local environmental groups, compared with about 100 who attended such meetings before the disaster, according to John Krieg, a retired electrician who lives in Queen Valley and attended the meeting.
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