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Erik Vlot and Job Kruyswijk, Weir Minerals, the Netherlands, identify how to make tailings management more sustainable.
t the launch of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management in August 2020, Ligia Noronha, Director of United Nations Environment Programme’s Economy Division, outlined how she hoped recent catastrophic tailings storage facility (TSF) failures would act as a catalyst for change in the mining industry: “The approach to mine tailings facilities must place safety
first by making environmental and human safety a priority in management actions and on-the-ground operations.” She acknowledged that change cannot happen overnight, and that existing infrastructure cannot simply be replaced; rather, it is a long-term undertaking and, as a first step, the industry needs to commit to improving many existing practices around tailings management.
global mining review // January/February 2022
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