Safety of embankment dams in the case of upgrading the existing tailings storage facilities

Abstract

The embankments over tailings dams and waste lagoons or the upgrade at the existing tailings storage facilities, from stability aspects of a heterogenic geo environment, has many similarities with the tailings dams with upstream construction method. These earth-fill structures are susceptible to liquefaction during static and dynamic (cyclic) loading and therefore they are civil engineering structures with the highest stability risk. The need to provide an additional volume for depositing tailings material, necessary for the regular operation of mines in conditions of spatial limitation, actualizes the upgrade of the tailings storage facilities. This upgrade is characterized by detailed geotechnical in-situ investigations and sophisticated structural analyses, which are illustrated by the results of the stability analyses (in static and dynamic conditions) of a dry stacking embankment above the tailings storage facility Sasa no. 2, Makedonska Kamenica, Republic of North Macedonia.