Lessons Learned from the Two Major Tailings Dam Accidents in Brazil
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TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Lessons Learned from the Two Major Tailings Dam Accidents in Brazil Jair Carlos Koppe1 Received: 5 March 2020 / Accepted: 17 September 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The failures of the Mariana and Brumadinho tailings dams in Minas Gerais, Brazil, had severe environmental repercussions and caused many fatalities. What should or could have been done to prevent these kinds of accidents? This paper discusses the management practices, relevant legislation, and supervision of tailings dams in Brazil, as well as the possible causes of these dam breaks, and evaluates whether the measures taken by National Mining Agency (ANM) will prevent more such accidents. Intensive investigation of these accidents revealed some similarities and discrepancies. The failure mode for both tailings dams was liquefaction flow. Considering that many other tailings dams are in similar conditions, it is likely that further failures may occur, despite the measures taken by the ANM. Keywords Brumadinho accident · Mariana accident · Static liquefaction · Dam management
Introduction Many tailings dams are large structures that were intended to stand for a long time, but many tailings dams have failed during the past 60 years. The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD 2001) statistically analyzed tailings dams failures from 1965 to 2000, and concluded that about 37% of the total tailings volume are released by such failures, while Rico et al. (2008) estimated that the released volume averages 33% of the stored tailings. The rate of tailings dam failures is much higher than the failure rate for water retention dams (Chambers and Higman 2011). Bowker and Chambers (2015) highlight that since 1990, the consequences of dam failures have increased in intensity. Owen et al. (2020) cites the accidents of Brumadinho (Brazil 2019), Cadia mine (Australia 2018), Mount Polley (Canada 2014), and Philex Padcal (Phiippines 2012). The relatively recent catastrophic ruptures of the Mariana and Brumadinho tailings dams, both located in Minas Gerais, Brazil, had severe environmental repercussions and caused numerous fatalities They require us to reflect on what
* Jair Carlos Koppe [email protected] 1
Postgraduation Program of Mining, Metallurgy and Materials (PPGE3M), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, Brazil
could and should have been done to prevent these accidents. On Nov. 5, 2015, the Samarco’s Fundão tailings dam in the municipality of Mariana, Minas Gerais failed, causing a huge environmental disaster that resulted in the deaths of 19 people, and flooded several houses. Approximately 32 million m3 of tailings, corresponding to about 61% of the total tailings volume, were discharged. The tailings struck Rio Doce (the Doce River) and its tributaries, destroying districts and leaving thousands of the region’s residents without water and without work. This was the biggest environmental disaster in Brazil and its environmental impact
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