Tailings Dam Breach Analyses

Dr. Hossein Kheirkhah and Scott Laberge of Barr Engineering Co. present their talk "Tailings Dam Breach Analyses". Abstract: Tailings Dam Breach Analysis (TDBA) is a critical aspect in assessing the potential impacts that a tailings containment failure may have on surrounding communities and the environment. These analyses are more often required by regulators as part of the approval for the design of a tailings containment structure. This is to ensure that the risk posed by such facilities is appropriately characterized and that the mine owners have appropriate emergency response and emergency preparedness plans in the event of a hypothetical failure of the dam. TDBA has evolved over the more recent decade and is no longer just a regulatory box to be checked, as public pressure for the responsible management of these facilities grows in the wake of recent tailings dam failures throughout the world. TDBAs have traditionally been completed on water-containing structures, but additional care must be taken such that the analyses can more appropriately account for the hydrodynamic, geotechnical, and rheological considerations inherent in a tailings release. This presentation will provide a high-level review of current practices in TDBA for tailings storage facilities including tailings mechanics, failure modes, release volume estimation, downstream routing, recommendations, and current research on further improving these analyses. Speaker Bios: Dr. Hossein Kheirkhah is a Senior Water Resources Engineer, and project manager with Barr Engineering. His expertise includes, but is not limited to, hydrology and hydraulic analysis, river and coastal engineering modelling, pollution dispersion in water bodies, water and tailings dam breach analysis, flood hazard studies, shoreline protection, mine water management and design of hydraulic structures. Hossein completed his PhD and Master's degrees in Water Resources Engineering in 2021 and 2013, respectively, from the University of Ottawa. He has been teaching as a sessional instructor at the University of Ottawa since 2020. Mr. Scott Laberge is a Geoenvironmental Engineer-in-Training with Barr Engineering. His expertise is focused on tailings and mine waste management, with a particular focus on Canada’s oil sands and potash mining industries. Scott completed his BSc in Mining Engineering and MSc in Geoenvironmental Engineering in 2017 and 2022, respectively, both at the University of Alberta.