Mine tailings dams’ failures: serious environmental impacts, remote solutions

Tailings containment dam failures cause severe environmental, social, and economic impacts. Analyzing past occurrences allows society and decision-makers to improve storage facility safety. This study presents an overview of tailings dam failures, exploring historical aspects and environmental consequences. Two methodological strategies were used: 1. An investigation of international agencies’ reports; 2. A systematic review of the scientific literature. The identified accidents totaled 366, releasing 279,114,891 m³ of tailings, resulting in 4,868.15 km of traveled distance, and killing 3043 people. The upstream dam construction method was the most common, and overtopping was the primary failure cause. The higher frequency of failures was not associated with the increase in mine exploration but was related to dam structures, their maintenance, and environmental conditions. The chronological analysis of accidents and their impacts showed a tendency of failure frequency and severity over the last two decades. Also, recent accidents were more frequent in large dams. The systematic review showed a continuous quantitative and qualitative increase in metrics on the subject. The main trends found in the literature were in the categories of environmental impacts, and the main gap remediation and mitigation research. The presented data is underestimated because reports from international agencies and the literature show incomplete information. However, our review showed that mine tailings dam failures are a current problem that requires urgency from government agencies, mining industries, and health authorities to establish goals for reducing mine waste disposal and mitigating its effects.