Site-wide water balances provide valuable oversight of mining water management, but the complexity and critical role of Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs) require a focused, facility-specific approach. TSFs often remain a “black box” in conventional balances, particularly with respect to entrapped and interstitial water. Yet, understanding how much water is stored within a TSF, and how it changes over time, is fundamental to water optimisation, environmental stewardship, and dam safety. This paper highlights the advantages of developing TSF-specific water balances. By explicitly accounting for inflows and outflows, including slurry water, rainfall, evaporation, seepage, recovery processes, and entrapped water, operators can better characterise water dynamics that are typically underestimated in broader site-wide assessments. A case study illustrates how such focused analysis provides clearer insights into water storage and release, supporting improved conservation, regulatory compliance, and enhanced stability of TSFs. Given that TSFs evolve over decades, with changing tailings properties and seepage regimes, a robust water balance informed by up-to-date hydraulic data is essential for long-term management. It is proposed that TSF-specific water balances should be regarded as standard practice in mining. Such an approach not only strengthens operational decision-making but also supports sustainable water use and minimises environmental impacts, ensuring that TSFs continue to perform their essential function without compromising safety or integrity.
