Seepage, stability and pollution transport of an upstream tailing dam with COMSOL.

Abstract: In the early years of the 20th century the first tailing dams were constructed, the upstream tailing dam being the first type. Before this the tailings were disposed in the nearest stream or river. This caused legal issues between farmers and the mining companies, which ended the random discharge of the tailings. During the 20th century many tailing dams collapsed raising questions whether the technology is sufficient and safe. The known failures are just a fraction of the actual number since not all failures are documented. If a tailing dam were to break the consequenses could be fatal not only on impact but longterm, affecting many generations to come. This paper analyses an active tailing dam in China using the software COMSOL 3.4. The main aspects are the seepage, stability and pollution transport of the unsaturated upstream tailing dam. The results indicate that the dam at this point in time is stable, based on the aspects studied, the inputdata and models that were created.