With a focus on innovation, all stages of the life cycle of dams and water resources will be addressed—from planning to closure—incorporating aspects of climate change, sedimentation, environmental protection, and risk management.
Course: Slope Stability, Part 3
The course will build on previous ICOLD training sessions on slope stability (Parts 1 and 2). Part 1 described the fundamentals of slope stability in dams with contractive soils, and Part 2 provided tools to evaluate the stability of dams that do not meet usual factor-of-safety guidelines. Part 3 will explore various additional concepts related to the assessment of slope stability in dams that do not meet standard guidelines, including vulnerability assessments.
The course is an extension of the slope stability course delivered at the 2nd SMIG Symposium in March 2026. That course featured the key speakers selected for the Part 3 training.
SRK specialist involved in organizing the activities:
Alejo Sfriso, Chairman of the SRK Global Group, Corporate Consultant (Geotechnical Engineering)
Date: Friday, May 22, full day (8 hours).
Workshop: Governance and Management of Tailings (B 194) and Roundtable (International and Mexican Engineering Perspectives)
The goal of the workshop is to initiate a white paper that analyzes how improvements (if any) can be achieved in the governance of tailings in Mexico. There will be presentations and discussion on tailings management, operational management experiences in Mexico and internationally, including governance, regulations, and standards.
Roundtable on: ICMM good practices (GISTM), ICOLD, CDA and ANCOLD, governance and management, and challenges for Mexico and the world. The panel will include Mexican representatives with extensive experience in the mining industry and international representatives from ICOLD.
SRK specialists involved in organizing the activities:
Alejo Sfriso, Chairman of the SRK Global Group, Corporate Consultant (Geotechnical Engineering)
Alejandro Ortiz, General Manager Mexico, Senior Geotechnical Engineer
Date: Thursday, May 28, full day (8 hours).
Technical Presentation : Bayesian Characterization of a Tailings Dam Following Eurocode 7 Principles
Abstract: The geotechnical characterization of tailings dams presents significant challenges due to the spatial heterogeneity of the materials and the limited amount of available test data. Bayesian statistical methods provide a robust framework to represent and update uncertainty in the definition of geotechnical parameters and hydrogeological conditions by integrating prior information with new experimental data. This work presents a practical application of Bayesian inference for estimating the undrained shear strength of tailings in an operating dam. Results from cone penetration tests and laboratory tests were combined, incorporating empirical correlations and expert judgment within a unified probabilistic model. Through the Bayesian updating process, predictive posterior distributions were obtained that captured both material variability and measurement uncertainty, allowing strength estimates to be refined based on the available evidence while reducing reliance on subjective criteria. As a result, a characteristic strength was derived in accordance with the definition proposed in the second generation of Eurocode 7. This procedure proved to be an effective tool to improve the design and stability assessment process for tailings dams within a reliability-based framework.
Authors: Lisandro Roldan, Florencia Spinazzola, Manuela Boyero, Nicolás Ibañez, Tomás Iriarte, Alejo Sfriso
Speaker: Holly Williams
TC-H Workshop: Dam Safety; Risk Assessment and Risk Management for Dams
Saturday May 23 8:00AM - 12:00PM
Speaker: Holly Williams
A Practical Framework for Benchmarking Failure Rates of Tailings Storage Facilities
Tuesday May 26 01:50PM - 02:10PM
Speaker: Holly Williams
