An Overview of the Canadian Dam Association’s Technical Bulletin on Tailings Dam Breach Analysis

Mohammad (Mamun) Al-Mamun, MSc Eng, PEng, Geotechnical Dam Lead, Prairie Engineering Practise, with Tetra Tech Canada, presents his talk "An Overview of the Canadian Dam Association’s Technical Bulletin on Tailings Dam Breach Analysis". Abstract: Dam breach analysis is an important aspect in establishing design criteria and evaluating risk to the downstream environment, communities, and infrastructures, and preparing emergency planning documents. While such analysis is routinely conducted for water retaining dams, its application to dams that contain viscous solids, such as tailings, has been a challenge because of uncertainties regarding interactions between the tailings which may or may not be liquefiable and any free water that may be present. The Canadian Dam Association's (CDA) Mining Dam Committee had been working on developing a technical guidance document on this complex topic since 2014 and recently published a technical bulletin on Tailings Dam Breach Analysis (TDBA). In this presentation, an overview of the bulletin including its scope, key features, its application, limitations will be discussed. Speaker Bio: Mohammad (Mamun) Al-Mamun has 20 years of experience in geotechnical, geoenvironmental, and infrastructure engineering and led multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder teams that delivered complex and challenging design and construction projects. His areas of expertise include design and construction of embankments dams and waste dumps, dam safety management (water, hydropower, mining), QA/QC, preparation of construction specifications, regulatory compliance, risk management, tailings management, large site investigation and foundation characterizations programs, including laboratory and in-situ testing, and construction management. Mamun currently leads the Prairie Dam Engineering group for Tetra Tech Canada. He leads project delivery and proposal preparation for various infrastructure, dam safety, irrigation, water management and mining projects; manages and mentors technical staff; and participates and contributes in business development and strategic planning. He received his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and M.Sc. Eng. in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Calgary, Canada. Mamun is an active member of the Canadian Dam Association (CDA). He chaired technical committees, working groups and organized several workshops and conferences for CDA, Tailings and Mine Waste (TMW) and the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS).