The need for improved methods of tailings dam inspection is clear from the number of documented disasters that have occurred due to their failings (Click here for full story). This year alone there have already been three documented failings in Brazil, Australia and Mexico, the latest of which took place only last month in June 2018.
A dam containing mineral tailings at the Cieneguita mine, located in the Urique municipality of the Chihuahua state in Mexico, collapsed on the morning of the 4th of June 2018. According to a local publication, the dam breach released 249,000 cubic meters of tailings and 190,000 cubic meters of embankment materials.
The weight of the tailings swept away miners who were working at the mine at the time and machinery and vehicles sustained heavy damage from the breach. When the area was established to be safe, 150 people were deployed for the search-and-rescue operations along the 26 kilometers of the now distinctively white waters of the Cañitas creek (Click here for full story). A couple of workers with minor injuries were hospitalized and by the 10th of June a fifth body had been rescued from the mine site with two other miners still missing (Click here for full story).
Rocketmine has developed a Drone Thermal Leak Detection Solution to address issues currently being experienced with inspections of tailings dams. Read the Rocketmine article in PositionIT to gain further insight into our Drone Thermal Leak Detection Solution.