2009 – Why should ANCOLD produce tailings guidelines?
John Phillips
There are many international guidelines, state regulations and technical standards relating to tailings disposal. In addition, the larger mining companies have their own in-house standards and design rules with competent personnel in charge of their operations. Sound embankment design methods can be used by most designers familiar with earth dam design.
The paper gives a listing of many of the current sources of information and guidance available, with some comments by the author on their perceived relevance to the Australian mining industry. Despite the availability of a number of other guidelines at the time, the need for Australian Guidelines was recognised in the mid 1990s and the reasons for the development of the 1999 ANCOLD Tailings Guideline are explained.
Perhaps the best recognition of the need for the original ANCOLD guideline is the degree to which it has been adopted since publishing the 1999 edition. It is in almost universal use in the Australian mining industry and is recognised as providing appropriate and acceptable standards by all state governments. Its use is recognised and sometimes even specified by a number of neighbouring countries and it is also recognised internationally when used by Australian companies with overseas operations.
The reasons for this wide acceptance are described. However, there are some areas where more recent developments have led to the Guidelines becoming dated and improved international guidelines have been published since 1999. The need for a revised ANCOLD guideline and its elevance is then described.
Keywords: Tailings, dams, mining, guidelines
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2009 Papers
2009 – Burdekin Falls Dam – Testing the Boundary of Hydrology
Learn moreRob Ayre, Simone Gillespie
The Burdekin Falls Dam (BFD) is a SunWater-owned dam completed in 1987. BFD is located in North Queensland, approximately 180 kilometres south of Townsville. BFD is the largest dam in Queensland having a storage capacity of 1,860,000 ML and it has the largest spillway capacity in Australia. The Burdekin River basin drains an area of about 114,770 km2 which is nearly twice the size of Tasmania. Runoff in the catchment is very reliable and flows have overtopped the spillway every year, except one, since it was built. The volume of inflow into the dam during a flood event is considerable, and water spills from the dam for an average of three months each year.
SunWater is investigating the raising of BFD, to increase the storage capacity of the dam by two metres or approximately 30% of its current storage capacity to 2,446,000 ML. In addition SunWater are investigating provisions to further stabilise the concrete gravity main dam to improve dam safety performance by ensuring it complies with current guidelines. Design flood estimation has advanced since BFD was constructed, as the techniques for determining extreme rainfall have been progressively refined. To meet current Acceptable Flood Capacity (AFC) guidelines, the flood discharge capacity at BFD must be increased by 35%. However, whilst this estimate was derived in accordance with current relevant guidelines (ARR, Book VI, 2001) the size of the BFD catchment means that this particular catchment lies on the fringe of the applicability of these guidelines.
Of particular concern is the assignment of the Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP) of the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP), which is based upon catchment area. The adoption of the AEP of the PMP for BFD at 1 in 9,000 has implications for the application of risked based approaches for the design.
This paper discusses the existing methodology of design flood hydrology used in Australia and identifies areas of concern for the application of such techniques for large catchments. It also discusses the methodology SunWater utilised in an attempt to meet existing guidelines within these limitations.
Keywords: Burdekin Falls Dam, Flood Hydrology, Probable Maximum Precipitation, Annual Exceedence, Probability
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2009 Papers
2009 – Climate Change impacts on the Water Supply in Maryborough
Learn moreMartina Reichstetter and Dr Mohand Amghar
The future effects of climate change on water resources in southeast Queensland and other parts of Australia will depend on trends in both climatic and non-climatic factors. Evaluating these impacts is challenging because water availability, quality and streamflow are sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation. Other important factors include increased demand for water caused by population growth, changes in the economy, development of new technologies, changes in catchment characteristics and water management decisions.
This paper provides an overview of how climate change may affect water yields and water availability in the Tinana Creek catchment. The Tinana Creek water supply is located in the south-eastern costal area of Queensland and covers an area of 783 km2. The catchment experiences a sub-tropical climate with warm to hot summers and mild dry winters. Climate variation and change are expected to impact the upper Tinana Creek water supplies and the planning of potential future water supply options. The Maryborough City’s water supply is currently supplied solely by Teddington Weir to domestic and industrial users. In this paper, climate change impacts on the water yields were investigated by assigning climate change, derived from SimCLIM, onto the input data used in the Sacramento rainfall-runoff model and Integrated Quantity and Quality Model (IQQM). Eighteen different climate change scenarios were undertaken, using three different Global Climate Models (GCM) (CSIRO MK2, HadCM3 and CGCM2), three different emission scenarios (A1FI, B2 and A1B) at two different time steps (2030 and 2050). This paper presents results with current and future climate scenarios of water availability in the study area.
Keywords: Teddington Water supply, IQQM, water resource plan, climate change, SimCLIM, Maryborough.
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2009 Papers
2009 – Management of Tailings In Australia, Past, Present and Future
Learn moreRuss McConnell
Australia’s prosperity is closely linked to the development of mining. Tailings production has always been associated with mining and acceptable management strategies of tailings have progressively developed to meet ever changing community expectations. In the late 1800’s, tailings were typically dumped into streams or onto land as mullock heaps, resulting in severe pollution. Practices gradually changed so that by the 1920’s tailings were often held in dams or ponds. However failures were common with slugs of slimes and contaminants moving down watercourses. For the purpose of protecting life and property, States started regulation of the management of tailings under various dam safety umbrellas in the late 1980’s. In 1995, Queensland, in consultation with stakeholders, produced tailings management guidelines, which enunciated good tailings management principles. Later guidelines have incorporated many of these principles. In 2002, the regulation of tailings disposal in Queensland moved into the Environment and Resource Management framework, where the emphasis is on obtaining a sustainable environment. Emerging practices are seeking better ways of incorporating mine tailings into the environment with minimal impact. Backfilling of mine workings, integration of mine waste facilities and beneficial use are some of the methods now used for tailings disposal. This paper looks at the historical management of tailings, the evolving regulatory framework, and the emerging practices for protecting the environment while allowing for development that improves the total quality of life, both now and in the future, in a way that maintains the ecological processes on which life depends.
Keywords: Dams, Tailings, TSF, Community, River Pollution, Cleanup, Risk, Mining
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2009 Papers
2009 – Today’s Capital, Tomorrow’s Consequences; Assessing Future Failure Costs
Learn moreAlice Lecocq, Bob Wark, Paul Hurst, Michael Somerford
The justification for dam safety remedial works is often based on an assessment of life safety risk and financial losses defined at a discrete point in time. However these parameters are likely to change over time with demographic growth, land and industrial development. The Water Corporation has a number of dams upstream of major growth areas and an understanding of the future direct and indirect economic consequences of dam failure are required in order to define the change in risk profile over time.
This paper outlines the study framework adopted by the Water Corporation to review its capital expenditure on its remedial works programme. Dam failure consequence assessments for Wellington, Serpentine and Samson Brook Dams are presented and the paper describes the methodology adopted to forecast the likely development within the inundation areas. A framework to consistently estimate future changes to life safety and economic consequences is also presented.
Keywords: demographic growth, land and industry development, monetary assessment, future trends, consequence assessment.
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2009 Papers
2009 – Innovative Solution to foundation piping risk at Hinze Dam
Learn moreGavan Hunter, Chris Chamberlain, Mark Foster
Hinze dam, an extreme hazard storage, is under the authority of Seqwater (Southeast Queensland) and is principle potable water storage supplying the Gold Coast. Hinze Dam Stage 3, presently under construction, involves raising the existing embankment almost 15m to a maximum height of 80m.
The foundation geology on the right abutment of the main embankment comprises of a deeply weathered sequence of greywacke and variably silicified greenstone and chert. The deeply (and variably) weathered soil profile below the right abutment of the existing embankment presented an unacceptable piping risk for the embankment in its existing condition. Contributing factors included: 1/ the highly erodible extremely weathered greywacke and presence of continuous defects in the weathered soil mass; 2/ the extremely weathered greenstone in direct contact with highly fractured, highly permeable silicified greenstone and chert bodies aligned normal to the dam axis which provide continuous seepage paths through the foundation.
Works were required as part of the Stage 3 raise to address the foundation piping risk. Significant issues for design included: 1/ the depth of weathering extended up to 25to 40m into the foundation.; 2/ extremely weathered and highly erodible greenstone was present below the right abutment of the embankment and extended down to the lower abutment some 50 to 60 m below the existing dam crest; 3/ the reservoir level could not be drawn down during construction and the probability it would be near full supply level during the works was high; and 4/ the variability of strength in the greenstone form soil to extremely high strength presented challenges for excavation.
The options assessed to address the piping risk included a plastic concrete cut-off wall and an upstream blanketing option. The plastic concrete cut-off wall (220m long and up to 50m deep) and deep filter trench was the selected option. The cut-off wall had been successfully completed ahead of time and below budget. The innovative design required excavation through earthfill core of the embankment under full reservoir level and use of a purpose built trench cutter (by Bauer Foundations Australia) for the variable excavation conditions.
Keywords: dam safety, piping, risk assessment, cut-off wall.
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