It is five years since the launch of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) to improve the safety of mines’ tailings facilities, and the mining sector has been working on integrating more disciplines towards this goal.
This is leading to wider range of professions being involved in GISTM alignment efforts when mines plan, construct, manage and close their Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs), according to Franciska Lake, Partner and Principal Environmental Scientist at SRK Consulting (South Africa).
“The GISTM specifically requires a multidisciplinary knowledge base that integrates social, environmental, local economic, and technical inputs throughout a TSF’s lifecycle”, said Lake. “GISTM compliance demands cohesive, cross‑disciplinary collaboration, which allows the merging of environmental, social, technical, local economic and emergency‑response expertise into a dynamic, living knowledge base that can guide every stage of TSF management”.
More Monitoring
Digital technology has been playing an important role in facilitating this advance, through near-real-time monitoring of various aspects of TSF behaviour, explained SRK Consulting (South Africa) Associate Partner and Principal Engineering Geologist James Dutchman.
“Modern equipment and instrumentation now enable more accurate data acquisition methods, allowing monitoring systems to better support and align to the GISTM’s monitoring and surveillance requirements”, said Dutchman. “Digital transformation in the sector has also enabled us to move from manual, single-point data collection to high-frequency big data platforms”.
This provides the opportunity to examine micro-trends and the inter-relationships between the metrics that govern TSF safety and other conformance aspects, he said. Among the disciplines required to forge the collaborative workflows envisaged by the GISTM are geotechnical engineering, hydrology, geochemistry, climate science, water stewardship, stakeholder engagement and disaster management.
Watch our video on SRK Consulting South Africa’s (SA) Role in Responsible Tailings Management.
