Dewatered tailings facilities (thickened, paste, filtered) can be considered safer alternatives to conventional tailings disposal, primarily due to the lower amounts of water stored as a pond or interstitially within the tailings mass. While it is acknowledged that a risk-based approach to TSF design should always be followed, the pressure to deliver projects quickly and often within limited budgets creates a tendency to rely on standards-based design criteria which may not always be directly applicable to dewatered tailings facilities.
Authors will discuss current practice for evaluating key TSF design criteria, taking as a base leading guidelines such as MAC (2019), ANCOLD (2012) and CDA (2007, 2014), and relates this to the context of dewatered tailings facilities. It identifies important elements to consider, issues likely to be encountered and areas of improvement, and provides a basis for continuing research and discussion.
