Investigation of Flow Failures of Tailings Dams

A characteristic common to most mine tailings dam failures is that the tailings tend to liquefy and flow over substantial distances, with potential for extensive damage to property and life. The existence of these potentially hazardous earth structures is of great concern to the public and to the mining industries. In order to be able to assess the potential for damage in case of such a failure, it is necessary to be able to predict the characteristics of the flow and the possible extent of flood movement. A companion paper to this illustrated the various analytical procedures that have been developed for this purpose. The present paper describes a series of flume experiments that were conducted to check the validity of these analysis procedures. In light of the good agreement observed, the results of the analyses are then compared with flow movements observed in several case studies where failures have occurred.