In situ shear strength testing of tailings and other waste materials and its interpretation

Although laboratory shear testing is essential and usually the only option at the stage of design, it has the following disadvantages:

• If design is based on the properties of material produced by a pilot plant, these may not be representative what will eventually exist in the prototype storage structure.

• The stress conditions in situ are not known with any accuracy and therefore may not be correctly simulated in the laboratory tests.