Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines – Page 24

Major miners reveal tailings dam data, action plans following disasters – by Shriya Ramakrishnan and Sangameswaran S (Reuters U.S. – June 7, 2019)

June 7, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Global miners BHP Group, Anglo American Plc and Glencore Plc revealed details on tailings dams, months after ethical investors sought the information following a second deadly dam disaster in Brazil.

BHP, which operates 67 tailings facilities, said on Friday it has set up a tailings taskforce to further improve its focus on internal dam management and boost safety.

The world’s biggest miner added that a review undertaken to assess the management of tailings facilities following the 2015 Samarco disaster, which killed 19 people, had identified no immediate concerns regarding dam integrity.

COLUMN: ‘Moonscape’ Sudbury deserves global recognition for its environmental success – by Dr. John Gunn (Northern Ontario Business – June 7, 2019)

June 7, 2019

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Dr. John Gunn is the Canada Research Chair in Stressed Aquatic Systems and the director of the Vale Living with Lakes Centre in Sudbury.

Michael Moore’s recent documentary film about lead in drinking water in Flint Michigan has catapulted that city onto a growing list of places known for environmental disasters, including Chernobyl, Love Canal, Minamata, Bhopal, London with its great deadly smog of 1952, and the little town of Walkerton, Ontario, where seven died and more than 2,000 became sick because of E. coli contamination.

Positive environmental stories from specific places also exist, but like the evening news, the positive stories never get quite as much attention.

There are, however, some wonderful examples, such the Montréal Protocol and the Paris Accord, where a city’s name is forever linked to an event where world leaders came together to address global threats to the environment, such as the ozone depleting compounds in the atmosphere, or the severe threats of climate change.

Millions at stake in Sask-Ottawa legal fight over uranium mine cleanup – by Francois Biber (CTV News – June 4, 2019)

June 5, 2019

https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/

The Province of Saskatchewan is suing the federal government for its share of the cleanup costs of what used to be the world’s largest uranium mine.

Saskatchewan has spent $135 million so far with total costs estimated at $280 million; the federal government has spent $1 million, Bronwyn Eyre, Saskatchewan’s minister of energy and natural resources, told reporters during a mine site visit. “I think any fair observer looking at that information would say that is not fair.”

Gunnar Mine, located 25 kilometres south of Uranium City near Lake Athabasca, began as an open pit uranium mine in 1954. It operated underground between 1957 and 1963.

UPDATE 1-Slow landslide at Vale’s Gongo Soco reduces risk to dam – by Gram Slattery (Reuters U.S. – May 31, 2019)

May 31, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 31 (Reuters) – A closely watched embankment at a Brazilian iron ore mine run by Vale SA has begun to slide slowly into the bottom of a mining pit, the company said on Friday, reducing concerns that a sudden landslide would trigger a dangerous dam collapse.

Authorities had initially feared that a landslide at Vale’s Gongo Soco mine could destabilize the nearby Sul Superior dam, wreaking havoc on a nearby town. However, the dam remains intact, Vale said.

An environmental official for the state of Minas Gerais had previously estimated a 10-15% chance of the Sul Superior dam losing integrity due to tremors from the expected landslide.

How should universities introduce more closure training into classrooms? – by Jax Jacobsen (CIM Magazine – May 27, 2019)

May 29, 2019

http://magazine.cim.org/en/

Mining engineering grapples with how to integrate more closure and CSR into the curriculum

Following a series of high-profile tailings dam failures, the waste management and closure practices of the mining industry are under increasing scrutiny. Canadian universities for their part are questioning how they should adapt their curriculum to better prepare the next generation of miners to work in this new reality.

Leading mining educators in Canada have mixed feelings about shaking up the curriculum to incorporate more mine closure-focused coursework.
“We cannot [spend] the time on courses related to these fields without having an impact on other fields,” said Bruno Bussière, a professor at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) and the scientific director of RIME UQAT-Polytechnique (Research Institute for Mines and the Environment).

“We have very dense programs with a lot of courses,” he said, adding that incorporating new course requirements would mean removing something else from the curriculum.

The internet of tailings: Better connections, affordable sensors and smarter platforms are the foundation for modern tailings storage facility monitoring – by Cecilia Keating (CIM Magazine – May 29, 2019)

May 29, 2019

http://magazine.cim.org/en/

Mine operators and regulators can now monitor readings from sensor equipment installed at tailings storage facilities more quickly, less expensively and without having to physically traipse around the tailings dam to manually collect the data. In some cases, engineers can check in on dams’ sensor readings in near real time from thousands of kilometres away.

This is largely thanks to the technological sorcery of the internet of things (IoT). When mentioned in relation to mine tailings monitoring, IoT technology means that old-school geotechnical sensors – like thermistors, inclinometers and piezometers – are made “smart,” or imbued with the ability to communicate.

In other words, battery-charged data acquisition systems are matched to the sensors threaded across a tailings dam, collecting sensor data and transmitting it to a central hub through a communications network. That central gateway will, in turn, push data to a digital dashboard where mine engineers and regulators can review it.

Brazil’s iron ore industry misery, a boom for Australian big miners (Merco Press – May 29, 2019)

May 29, 2019

https://en.mercopress.com/

Iron ore prices look set to be stronger for longer, potentially delivering windfall profits for West Australia’s big miners for the next two years.

As the iron ore price hit a five-year high of US$107.50/t this week, analysts have begun scrambling to revise their estimates as they start to digest the impact of supply disruptions out of Brazil and how long the outages could linger.

Iron ore giant Vale has been forced to close mines in Brazil, representing about 90 million tons of annual product, after a tailing dam disaster in January which killed hundreds. The company is facing another dam failure at one of its inactive mines and its 30mtpa Brucutu mine remains closed with lingering uncertainty as to when it can reopen.

China’s iron ore extends red-hot rally on supply worries – by Enrico Dela Cruz (Reuters India – May 26, 2019)

May 27, 2019

https://in.reuters.com/

MANILA, May 27 (Reuters) – China’s iron ore futures hit a new high since 2013 on Monday, extending last week’s record-breaking rally, as stocks of the steelmaking ingredient at ports continued to drop while worries lingered about another Brazil mine dam at risk of collapsing.

Iron ore inventory at Chinese ports SH-TOT-IRONINV has shrank further to the lowest in more than two years, latest data compiled by SteelHome consultancy showed.

Concerns about supply have also intensified after Vale recently told prosecutors in Brazil’s state of Minas Gerais that a dam is at risk of rupturing at its Gongo Soco mine.

Analysis: Fallout from dam disaster piles up against Vale – by Bryan Harris, Andres Schipani and Neil Hume (Australian Financial Review – May 27, 2019)

May 27, 2019

https://www.afr.com/

Brumadinho/London | Shortly after employees broke for lunch on January 25, a dam at Vale’s Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine in southeastern Brazil ruptured and collapsed, unleashing a tidal wave of sludge that devoured everything in a 5 kilometre path.

When the thick, brown discharge finally abated, almost 300 people were missing. Many drowned, buried alive in the industrial waste. Others were killed by the force of the impact, their bodies broken into pieces, and some suffocated while submerged in their vehicles. Investigators would later find scratch marks on the windows, where they had tried desperately to escape.

“This was murder,” says Andresa Rodrigues, whose 26-year-old son, Bruno, an engineer at the facility, was among the 231 people killed. More than 40 are still missing.

Tailings dam failures – can we minimise the risks? – by Craig Goff (Water Power Magazine – May 21, 2019)

May 21, 2019

https://www.waterpowermagazine.com/

Following the recent catastrophic failure of the Córrego do Feijão tailings dam in Brazil, Craig Goff from HR Wallingford considers the risks associated with these types of dam

The terrible human tragedy at a mining dam in Brazil in February 2019 has once again raised awareness of the risks posed by dams located upstream of population centres.

Dam failures of any type are fortunately rare, but, when they do occur these are incidents that can have severe consequences with mass loss of life and environmental and financial consequences in the billions of dollars. It is therefore crucial that we minimise the chance of a dam failure by rigorously improving safety at each point of the dam lifecycle.

What causes dams to fail?

There are typically two main ways an earthen embankment dam can fail – either by internal erosion or external erosion.

Vale’s Gongo Soco mine dam has up to 15% chance of bursting: Brazil official (Reuters U.S. – May 20, 2019)

May 21, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian miner Vale’s tailings dam in the town of Barao de Cocais in Minas Gerais has up to a 15% chance of breaking, the state’s environment secretary said on Monday.

The dam at Vale’s Gongo Soco mine is about 40 miles (64 km)from Brumadinho, where a tailings dam collapse unleashed a torrent of toxic mud in late January, killing more than 240 people.

Environment Secretary Germano Vieira disclosed the estimate after discussing the matter with prosecutors and the company itself.

What The Heck Is That? — Our industrial Lake Louise – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – May 16, 2019)

May 17, 2019

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Few people would mistake Sudbury for Banff, and yet there is one spot just northwest of the city off MR 35 that I like to think of as our own little Lake Louise.

Easily spied on the west side of the road near the turnoff to William Day Construction, its surface is a vivid turquoise that has no doubt caught the attention of a few passing motorists other than myself.

It jumps out just as much, if not more, when you look at it from an aerial, satellite perspective in Google Maps, its hue so distinct from the other water bodies around it — more San Jose teal than Maple Leafs blue.

Vale warns Brazil prosecutors another dam at risk of collapse – by Marta Nogueira (Reuters U.S. – May 16, 2019)

May 17, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian iron ore miner Vale SA told prosecutors in the state of Minas Gerais that a dam is at risk of rupturing at its Gongo Soco mine, about 40 miles from where its Brumadinho dam collapsed, killing more than 230 people.

According to a document published on Thursday, prosecutors said Vale is predicting the dam in the city of Barao de Cocais may collapse next week if the current rate of movement in the embankment of the mine pit close to the dam is maintained.

The warning underlines ongoing concern about the stability of dams in Brazil’s mining heartland of Minas Gerais in the aftermath of the Brumadinho accident, which itself came less than four years after another deadly dam collapse at a joint venture between Vale and BHP Group.

Column: Chinese outages a reminder of aluminium’s dirty secret – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – May 16, 2019)

May 16, 2019

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Chinese alumina prices have jumped to a five-month high on news that at least two refineries in the province of Shanxi are being shut down pending environmental inspections.

So far the market impact seems localised. Shanghai aluminium prices have risen on concerns about the potential knock-on effect on metal production in China. Alumina is the intermediate product derived from bauxite used to smelt aluminium.

But the price of alumina traded on the CME is unmoved, reflecting expectations that the giant Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil is poised to receive official sign-off to return to full production after more than a year of operating at half capacity.

Study indicates mine contamination not a big health issue for Yellowknifers – by Richard Gleeson (CBC News North – May 15, 2019)

May 15, 2019

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

The most comprehensive study undertaken on the concentration of mine contaminants in people living in the Yellowknife area shows contaminant levels similar to those found in Canadians generally.

“We don’t have any evidence or reason to be concerned about the immediate health effects that we see in other populations that have high levels, like India and Bangladesh,” said Dr. Laurie Chan, the University of Ottawa professor leading the study.

Researchers analyzed tongue swabs, toenail clippings and urine from 2,037 residents of Yellowknife, Ndilo and Dettah. They measured concentrations of arsenic, lead and cadmium. In adults, they found arsenic levels slightly lower than levels measured in Canadians generally. The levels in children were higher than in Canadian children generally, but not high enough to be a concern.