ABSTRACT
The failure of a number of mine waste storage facilities during the 1990’s and early 2000’s resulted in a changing attitude to the engineering management of these facilities. The reality dawned that, quite apart from potential and actual loss of life and environmental devastation, the negative publicity that resulted from these failures was seriously undermining the credibility of the mining and waste management industries, and jeopardizing their social ‘licence to operate’. This has led to a greater commitment to improving the quality of mine waste management in many companies and countries and it is reasonable to say that practices have gradually improved on what they were ten or fifteen years ago. Despite this, failures of mine waste storages continue to occur wherever mine waste is produced.
