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Tailings and Mine Waste Conference

Tailings dams in Nevada : an overview Tortelli, G.; Opperman, L.

Abstract

If the State of Nevada were a country, it would rank as the eighth largest gold producer in the world (NMA, 2014). The state is also a significant producer of silver, copper, barite, lithium, and other minerals. Nevada currently has over 30 active tailings dams permitted through the Nevada Division of Water Resources (NDWR). A variety of conditions, including geology, seismicity, and climate present challenges to both the design and regulation of tailings dams in the state. This paper provides an overview of historic and current regulations and design practices by combining the authors’ experience with information from the NDWR’s Safety of Dams Program database to present a general overview of the tailings dams in Nevada. The goal of the paper is to familiarize mine owners, regulators, and tailings dam designers with regulations and general engineering concepts currently used in Nevada.

Item Metadata

Title
Tailings dams in Nevada : an overview
Creator
Tortelli, G.; Opperman, L.
Contributor
Tailings and Mine Waste Conference (2015 : Vancouver, B.C.); University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering
Date Issued
2015-10
Description
If the State of Nevada were a country, it would rank as the eighth largest gold producer in the world (NMA, 2014). The state is also a significant producer of silver, copper, barite, lithium, and other minerals. Nevada currently has over 30 active tailings dams permitted through the Nevada Division of Water Resources (NDWR). A variety of conditions, including geology, seismicity, and climate present challenges to both the design and regulation of tailings dams in the state. This paper provides an overview of historic and current regulations and design practices by combining the authors’ experience with information from the NDWR’s Safety of Dams Program database to present a general overview of the tailings dams in Nevada. The goal of the paper is to familiarize mine owners, regulators, and tailings dam designers with regulations and general engineering concepts currently used in Nevada.
Subject
regulation; safety; permit; design; stability
Genre
Conference Paper
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2017-02-02
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0320887
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/59634
Affiliation
Applied Science, Faculty of; Mining Engineering, Keevil Institute of
Peer Review Status
Unreviewed
Scholarly Level
Other
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International