It’s an😲unthinkable scenario… A colossal structure🏨like a Tailings Storage Facility that looks at one moment so sturdy and secure, breaching in a mere moment. This is exactly what happened at the Cadia Valley Northern Tailings Storage Facility in New South Wales, Australia on the 9th of March 2018. A section of the tailings dam collapsed😵after a structural failure, resulting in the release of tailings material into the adjacent Southern Tailings Storage Facility. Fortunately,🤞in this case, the spill was contained, and no fatalities occurred HOWEVER production of the enormous gold and copper mining complex ground to a halt. Government agencies including the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment needed to visit the site to assess the risk to the surroundings, a long and costly💰operation. The mine was shut down🔒for around SIX MONTHS between March and September 2018 while clean up🗑and remediation measures were carried out. Costs 💲 plagued Newcrest Mining including loss of revenue, operational expenses, remediation, regulatory compliance and legal fees📃, as well as non-financial repercussions such as damage to reputation and investor confidence. Interestingly, had the dam been monitored 🔍 regularly using satellite 🛰 SAR data, the collapse could have been predicted. Our investigation into the movements of the structure over the months prior to the incident showed the velocity of displacement had been steadily increasing. Depending on what value of velocity or acceleration were set as the alert ⏰level, operations of the Northern Tailings Storage Facility may have been warned about a potential problem at this location 1 or 2 months prior to the collapse. With sufficient warning time, the collapse may have been avoidable through proactive remedial measures. This story serves to remind us that the price of reactive disaster response is not only financial… #Insar #remotesensing #satellite #mining
Proper facility management is critical on TSF’s, lack of preventative measures also result in increased risk
JEHU NWOSU
5mo
Geotechnical measurements are equally key to maintaining such structures Gouda Geo-Equipment B.V.
This is an outstanding demonstration of SAR data's effectiveness in real-time monitoring. InSAR 🛰 proves to be a highly efficient technique for various monitoring applications including natural hazards, urban subsidence, infrastructure, slope stability, and environmental changes. Its capability ranges from detecting significant ground movements caused by earthquakes to pinpointing minute millimeter-level deformations, as illustrated in the mentioned example.
Andrew Lees
6mo
😲 A sobering yet compelling case study.
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Head of Data at Aurora
6moAs a fan of #data, #insurance, and real-time #monitoring this really caught my eye! Insurers - and the companies themselves - must be using this type of pro-active monitoring, right? So many obvious benefits and it looks like the technology is available today 🔎. Thanks for posting GEOFEM - very insightful 🙌🏻