In this article:
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The devastating failure of Brazil’s Brumadinho Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) in January 2019, which took 270 people’s lives, was the tipping point for the industry
- Co-conveners launched the Global Standard on Tailings Management on the 5th August, 2020
- Download this FREE guide to learn about the chronology of events leading up to the Standard, The Standard and principles explained, implications for operators and available solutions to help implement the Standard
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Download your FREE GUIDE to the new Global Tailings Standard
An industry response
On behalf of the Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative, GRID-Arendal, a non-profit environmental communications centre based in Norway developed the Global Tailings Portal, bringing together the thousands of disclosures on individual tailings facilities. The TSF disclosure request asked that CEO’s and Board Chairs from 726 extractive companies publicly disclose tailings data to this portal and on their websites. Over 86 per cent of the mining industry (by market capitalisation) responded to the disclosure request, including 45 of the top 50 mining companies. This process has brought a new level of transparency to the industry allowing communities, investors, regulators and the media unprecedented access to information about mine waste. The more recent Global Standard on Tailings Management was launched on the 5th August, 2020. The historic agreement includes six topic areas, 15 principles and 77 auditable requirements, which covers the entire TSF lifecycle – from site selection, design and construction, management and monitoring, through to closure and post-closure. With an ambition of zero harm to people and the environment, the Standard significantly raises the bar for the industry to achieve strong social, environmental and technical outcomes by elevating accountability to the highest organisational levels and adds new requirements for independent oversight.Leveraging technology to meet the standard
These recent initiatives have encouraged mining companies to respond quickly to public demand for more transparency which has highlighted the need for a software solution which can improve tailings data management, reporting, monitoring, compliance and governance. Wesfarmers owned and Perth-based Software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, Decipher, has extended its successful TSF cloud platform to provide a solution which simplifies the process of TSF data disclosure as well as helping companies align with the new global tailings standard. Decipher Chief Executive Officer Anthony Walker said the resources industry is actively seeking easily implemented, cost effective and globally accessible solutions.“The early adoption from Tier 1 miners and general interest has been phenomenal indicating that there is a real need for a TSF data disclosure solution; it excites us that our technology platform can be leveraged to support better management and monitoring of tailings storage facilities.”
Armed with Decipher’s Tailings Database solution, customers can:
- Comply and meet requests for data provision from industry groups such as COE, ICMM, UNEP, PRI, Global Tailings Review and more, with fields embedded for simple reportingand tracking;
- Store an endless variety of tailings data in one location which is otherwise managed by a number of teams in disparate systems;
- Operate with increased confidence knowing required data is being collected and monitored;
- Easily visualise their operational TSF data on the map;
- Cluster data into key areas such as safety, risk, compliance, construction, design, roles and responsibilities;
- Assign actions and tasks for data collection with a register and audit trail of all actions and respective statuses to monitor progress, and reminder and escalation notifications;
- View dam data across multiple sites in a single screen with the ability to easily export for reporting;
- Facilitate automatic updates to databases and portals based on integration capabilities with third party systems or public portals;
- View spatial visualisation to display tailings dams in proximity to surrounding environment and communities;
- Better align with standard such as the Global Tailings management; and
- Access custom reports.
Effectively monitor your tailings storage facility with Decipher
- View real-time data and receive exceedance alerts
- Monitor land movement with remote sensing and InSAR datasets
- Visualise real-time LiDAR data with insights into dam movement
- Securely store and access all of your tailings data in the one place
- Upload and reference key documentation
- Visualise facilities across multiple sites in a single screen on a geospatial map
- Monitor your facilities with InSAR, LiDAR, DEM and more
- Capture a wide range of monitoring data and indicators su ch as surface and groundwater, decant pond water levels and quality, and embankment conditions
- Capture and track obligations and conditions around your licence to operate to manage your key risks and actions
- Action and task delegation for data collection with reminders
- Maintain and track environmental monitoring compliance limits and exceedances
- Manage and engage with all of your stakeholders with one central repository
- Convert your engagements into actionable outcomes
- Forecast, plan and track your sites activities using IBM’s Weather data
- Create corporate report templates and meet requests for data provision from industry groups such as ICMM, Global Tailings Portal, PRI and UNEP
- Integration capability with third party systems or public portals such as the Global Tailings Portal
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