During June, IM4DC hosted an eight-day short course in the Philippines for 36 Mines and Geoscience Bureau (MGB) staff, focused on the design and monitoring of tailings facilities, followed by a two-day workshop on numerical modelling of tailings facilities, for a smaller audience of 18 MGB staff and five academics from the University of the Philippines.
The purpose of the short course was to provide MGB staff with a comprehensive overview of the requirements for managing tailings storage facilities (TSF) risk over the mine life cycle. The course covered organisational processes involved in undertaking a TSF design, managing the construction and operation of TSFs, and both physical and environmental risks pertaining to closure and decommissioning.
MGB geotechnical and mining engineers and other technical staff from both the central and regional offices participated.
The course and workshop aimed to build MGB and university capacity in the field of assessing the stability of embankments using limit equilibrium, numerical modelling methods, management of environmental impacts, and the requirements for effective monitoring and reporting of performance.
The key themes of the course were as follows:
- Establishing a framework for managing tailings dam risks
- Basic principles of geomechanics
- The design process for tailings dams
- Monitoring and operating tailings dams
- Assessing the stability of embankments using numerical methods
- Identification and management of closures risks including physical, chemical and ecological risks.