紫金矿业

Tailings Storage Facilities
Tailings Storage Facilities
Tailings Storage Facilities

In mining activities, tailings are the part of the ore that, after the beneficiation process, contains a low percentage of valuable elements and cannot be used for production. Tailings are considered industrial solid waste. To protect the environment and control risks, we need to construct appropriate tailings storage facilities (TSFs) to manage the tailings. We prioritize the safety of tailings facilities, assume our due responsibilities, and strive to implement optimal management strategies and good practices throughout the lifecycle of tailings facilities. We adopt a sustainable development approach to maximize environmental protection and human rights protection, including the comprehensive utilization of tailings and environmental restoration and governance after the closure of the facilities.

Our Approach

We take responsibility for the entire life cycle of tailings storage facilities, including closure and post-closure, and make safety in the tailings storage facilities a top priority. We take social, environmental, local requirements and technical factors into comprehensive consideration, and based on excellent practices and centralized risk investigation and rectification during the initial stage, we have formulated the “Whole Life Management Process Standard for Tailings Storage Facilities” and the“ Safety Management Specification for Tailings Storage Facilities ” with life cycle management of tailings facilities covering design, construction, operation, closure and post-closure. We will follow the principles of the “Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management” and constantly update and improve the management standards.

Global Industry Standard for Tailings Management
  • PRINCIPLE 1:Respect the rights of project-affected people and meaningfully engage them at all phases of the tailings facility lifecycle, including closure
  • PRINCIPLE 2:Develop and maintain an interdisciplinary knowledge base to support safe tailings management throughout the tailings facility lifecycle, including closure
  • PRINCIPLE 3:Use all elements of the knowledge base - social, environmental, local economic and technical - to inform decisions throughout the tailings facility lifecycle, including closure
  • PRINCIPLE4:Develop plans and design criteria for the tailings facility to minimize risk for all phases of its lifecycle, including closure and post closure
  • PRINCIPLE 5:Develop a robust design that integrates the knowledge base and minimizes the risk of failure to people and the environment for all phases of the tailings facility lifecycle, including closure and post-closure
  • PRINCIPLE 6:Plan, build and operate the tailings facility to manage risk at all phases of the tailings facility lifecycle, including closure and post-closure
  • PRINCIPLE 7:Design, implement and operate monitoring systems to manage risk at all phases of the facility lifecycle, including closure
  • PRINCIPLE 8:Establish policies, systems and accountabilities to support the safety and integrity of the tailings facility
  • PRINCIPLE 9:Appoint and empower an Engineer of Record
  • PRINCIPLE 10:Establish and implement levels of review as part of a strong quality and risk management system for all phases of the tailings facility lifecycle, including closure.
  • PRINCIPLE 11:Develop an organizational culture that promotes learning, communication and early problem recognition.
  • PRINCIPLE 12:Establish a process for reporting and addressing concerns and implement whistleblower protections.
  • PRINCIPLE 13:Prepare for emergency response to tailings facility failures.
  • PRINCIPLE 14:Prepare for long term recovery in the event of catastrophic failure.
  • PRINCIPLE 15:Publicly disclose and provide access to information about the tailings facility to support public accountability.
TSF Design and Construction

Every TSF construction project must have OHS facilities and environmental protection facilities, which are designed, constructed, and put into production with the main project at the same time.


Before the design and construction of TSFs, we will fully analyze the project location and conduct geotechnical engineering investigation. The design and construction must strictly comply with compulsory safety regulations and requirements to guarantee the project quality. We will stimulate credible failure scenarios throughout the TSF lifecycle to review the dam stability, drainage system, and monitoring facilities. Our TSF design and construction requirements include:

  • Conduct feasibility study and safety pre-evaluation, and geotechnical engineering investigation before TSF construction, in order to evaluate potential safety risks and mitigations.
  • Set the stockpile method and the dam construction method based on hydrological and geological conditions in the mine site; and conduct stability analysis on landslide design and seismic design of TSFs.
  • Implement flood control design of the highest standard based on the climatic and hydrological conditions, such as rainfall and catchment area; and ensure that drainage facilities meet requirements.
  • Design and construct safety monitoring facilities; combine manual monitoring and online monitoring; and set relevant operational requirements of the monitoring facilities.
  • Construct TSFs in accordance with the design and construction plan strictly; establish a comprehensive quality and safety management system; properly arrange and organize the project construction; and carry out project inspection and acceptance with a specific focus on concealed works for the safety quality assurance.
  • Perform dynamic monitoring of tailings facilities and reliability analysis of communication equipment configuration.
  • Clarify land reclamation, future land use and post-closure matters.
  • Establish safety and environmental management system for TSFs.
Safety Inspection and Monitoring

During the operation of TSFs, we set detailed operation plans on the quarterly and annual basis. We will focus on the indicator monitoring of tailings, damming and discharge, flood loading control, seepage control and seismic design, and conduct safety evaluation and review. Meanwhile, we will conduct monitoring and inspection to identify, control and reduce safety risks and potential hazards.


The safety monitoring system in every TSFs combines manual and online monitoring. The system regularly monitors the length of embankment, phreatic line and dam displacement.


Our operation inspection focuses on:

Safety inspection of surrounding areas:

including the stability of surrounding mountains and dangerous behaviors such as illegal construction, operation, tailings reuse, water withdrawal, waste discharge, grazing and reclamation.

Safety inspection of drainage structures:

including deformation, displacement, break, clogging, and drainage capability.

Safety inspection of TSFs:

including contour, size, deformation, displacement, cracks, landslides, phreatic line, infiltration, etc.

Safety inspection of flood design:

Conduct flood calculation before flood season every year and set flood control plans. Ensure that TSF indicators accord with the requirements. Carry out an emergency drill before flood season. Conduct regular quality inspection of drainage structure.

Safety inspection of seepage design:

Monitor infiltration, seepage, swampiness of TSFs. Observe and record the phreatic line during the operation of TSFs. Take measures and add seepage facilities when the phreatic line exceeds the threshold.

Safety inspection of seismic design:

 Conduct daily safety inspection and reinforce TSFs according to the highest TSF seismic design standards. Set emergency preparedness plans. Before earthquake, pay attention to the stability of embankment and prevent landslide. After the earthquake, emergency plans should be launched to comprehensively inspect the dam, drainage structure and flood control design. The damaged facilities should be repaired in time.

Closure
  • The closure of TSFs involves processes including safety evaluation, closure design & construction, and safety acceptance.
  • If the tailings accumulates to the final designed elevation or cease discharging, the closure procedures shall be performed according to the relevant requirements.
  • Twelve months before the tailings reaching the designed final elevation, a qualified agency should be hired to evaluate the safety status and design the tailings closure. The safety evaluation report of tailing closure includes systematic analyses of the safety status of TSFs, and the design plan of TSF closure should include risk evaluation and mitigation measures.
  • TSF closure design should be reviewed and approved by the safety production supervision and administration department. Tailings dams and design should be regulated strictly according to the TSF closure requirements.
  • After completion of closure construction, a qualified agency should be entrusted to carry out safety evaluation and organize the safety acceptance of TSF closure.
  • TSFs after closure are not allowed to store water without prior research and approval. Daily maintenance and management of dam and flood discharge facilities shall be carried out according to requirements of closure management.