Properties of Mine Tailings for Static Liquefaction Assessment

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Static liquefaction has been associated with numerous recent failures of tailings storage facilities (TSFs) around the globe (e.g., the 2019 failure of Dam I at the Corrego de Feijao mine in Brumadinho). These failures lead to devastating consequences for the environment and civil infrastructure as well as the loss of human lives. This webinar will discuss trends for the mechanical response of mine tailings considering a broad range of states, particle size distributions, and compressibility. The aforementioned trends are evaluated in the context of static liquefaction using critical state soil mechanics concepts, focusing on key aspects such as the shear strength variation (residual and peak), state and brittleness indexes, and dilatancy. In particular, it is highlighted that mine tailings mechanical properties reflect both the properties of the particles themselves and the relative proportions of different particle sizes. Finally, the webinar will also discuss the challenges in assessing static liquefaction at the TSF scale and how mine tailings properties are incorporated in the process.

Learning objectives

Present static liquefaction as just another manifestation of the response of particulate materials.

Understand how mine tailings are characterized for liquefaction assessment purposes.

Present the state of practice and challenges of assessing static liquefaction on mine tailings.

The participants will learn:

How mine tailings are characterized under the critical state soil mechanics framework.

How mine tailings mechanical properties affect their response.

The challenges on assessing static liquefaction at the TSF scale.

Jorge Macedo, Ph.D., P.E.

Associate Professor

Georgia Institute of Technology, chair of the TAILENG center

Jorge Macedo, Ph.D., P.E., is an Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he has been a faculty member since 2018. He also has more than 18 years of consulting experience, contributing to major geotechnical related projects worldwide. Dr. Macedo currently serves as a subject-matter expert (SME) and as a member of independent technical review boards (ITRB) for the geotechnical aspects of civil and mining projects worldwide.

Dr. Macedo’s research focuses on geotechnical earthquake engineering, mining geotechnics, and emerging artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies for risk engineering and multihazard assessment. His work has received numerous distinctions, including the prestigious 2022 U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award for research at the intersection of mining geotechnics and artificial intelligence, the Young Researcher Award from the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, and multiple research and teaching awards from Georgia Tech and other institutions.

Dr. Macedo is the founder and chair of TAILENG—Tailings and Industrial Waste Engineering—a research center dedicated to enhancing the resilience of infrastructure in the mining and power sectors. He also chairs ISSMGE Technical Committee 221 on Tailings and Mine Waste. In addition, he serves as an associate editor for Earthquake Spectra and the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.