ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: The Cupias Tailings dam is located near the community of Tayoltita at the western extent of the Mexican state of Durango within the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range. The Cupias tailings dam was initially constructed with a compacted starter dam made of locally borrowed material. The dam was raised using spigotted tailings via the upstream method and has been in operation for more than 30 years with a current height of about 70 m. Supernatant water was reclaimed via a series of vertical towers that are connected by a concrete decant drainage tunnel beneath the impoundment. It was determined that existing static stability did not meet an acceptable factor of safety. As a result, phased stabilization berms were designed to mitigate the dam stability issue and tailings management technology was changed from the existing slurry disposal method to a tailings filtration plant, thus converting to a filtered tailings facility. The stabilization berms were to be constructed from filtered tailings, however due to timing issues with the filtration plant, the stabilization berms were mainly constructed out of locally borrowed material. This paper describes the project setting and requirements, construction, performance of the dam and the expansion of the filtered tailings facility design and construction components. The filtered tailings start-up facilities were constructed in 2008.
