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Static liquefaction failure of tailings impoundments has been a persistent issue for the mining industry for many decades. In this study, the monotonic shearing response and instability of gold tailings are examined through a series of constant-volume and drained direct simple shear tests on slurry-deposited and moist-tamped specimens. The experiments were carried out on both the silt and the sand tailings produced at the mill and separated for use in dam construction. Laboratory shear wave velocity measurements made by means of bender element tests were also used to relate the shearing response and strength of the tailings to an in situ geophysical measurement. Specimen fabric differences produced by the different preparation methods do not translate into significant differences in the critical state line, liquefaction triggering or post-liquefaction strength for the sand tailings. Additionally, common trends of undrained yield and post-liquefaction strength ratios with state parameter were observed for both the sand and the silt tailings despite their different fines contents. An empirical method to evaluate the onset of instability and the post-liquefaction strength of the tailings using shear wave velocity is proposed.
Riveros et al. (Tue,) studied this question.