Timeline Major mining tailings incidents

TIMELINE MAJOR MINING

TAILINGS INCIDENTS

Current mining industry standards do not go far enough to adequately protect communities and ecosystems from the consequences of tailings failures, according to a new Earthworks report. Here is a timeline of recent major incidents.

Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley gold-copper mine

On August 4, 2014, the tailings dam of Imperial Metals Corp’s Mount Polley copper and gold mine near Likely, British Columbia, Canada, failed, releasing 7.3mn cu/m of tailings, 10.6mn cu/m of water, and 6.5mn cu/m of interstitial water into the environment.

Samarco iron mine in Mariana, Brazil

On 5 November 2015, a huge tailings dam operated by Brazilian mining company Samarco collapsed, causing a tidal wave of 32m-40m cu/m of mining waste to wash across valleys, villages and farmland, covering houses in the town of Bento Rodrigues.

Córrego do Feijão mine

A dam at the Córrego do Feijão mine – owned by Vale in Brumadinho, Brazil – collapsed, releasing about 9.7mn cu/m of tailings. The mine waste travelled 8km over land, killed over 272 people, destroyed houses and buildings, and eventually flowed into the Paraopeba River.

MAJOR MINING

TAILINGS INCIDENTS

Brumadinho dam collapse

The 2019 mine tailings dam collapse near Brumadinho, Brazil, killed 272 people and decimated houses and buildings stretching for kilometres ,before flowing into the Paraopeba River.

Mining waste and commodities demand

Current trends suggest an additional 2-to-10-fold increase in the demand for many commodities – particularly those needed for energy transition technologies – by 2060. Earthworks states that these trends “are not sustainable”.