Abstract
Worldwide guidelines and regulations for tailings storage practices are often sporadic and do not target the key requirements of managing a tailings facility successfully. These guidelines and regulations influence the individual mine site management plans for how a tailings facility is managed on a daily basis. Improving regulations is the key to ensuring that a mineral operator will develop and implement a tailings management system that will reduce operational risk. This paper highlights the key tailings guidelines and standards used today in assisting a mineral operator to develop a suitable tailings management system for their tailings facilities. Actual mine site tailings management systems have been reviewed and good and poor examples presented. The influence of tailings regulations on these mine site management systems is also discussed, highlighting the weakness with tailings regulations today. A discussion is also presented that highlights the key weaknesses with mine site tailings management systems and recommendations for their improvement.
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