Shelbourn, M 2010, 'Geotechnical design verification and performance assessment of tailings storage facilities', in R Jewell & AB Fourie (eds), Mine Waste 2010: Proceedings of the First International Seminar on the Reduction of Risk in the Management of Tailings and Mine Waste, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 3-14, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_rep/1008_01_Shelbourn
(https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/1008_01_Shelbourn/)
Abstract: Tailings storage facilities can represent one of the greatest risk sources for a mine site, and the geotechnical 
design of any such facility should be conducted at a level appropriate for the satisfactory management of 
that risk. During operation, work is required to verify the geotechnical design parameters and conditions, 
which, at least for the deposited tailings, must often be assumed in the design stage, and to assess the 
performance of the facility, including consideration of eventual closure and reclamation. 
Topographic surveys, piezocone soundings, piezometer readings and seepage monitoring are among the 
most commonly used methods to characterise storage capacity, strength, rate of consolidation, porewater 
pressure and seepage conditions within tailings deposits. Some aspects of the collection, presentation and 
use of data from these monitoring and in situ testing methodologies for verifying geotechnical design 
assumptions are discussed in this document, with particular reference to tailings facilities for which 
structural support is provided by the impounded tailings. Advances in equipment, field work and data 
acquisition have improved the quality and quantity of geotechnical information and should lead to further 
development of tailings-specific geotechnical databases and correlations at each mine site and across the 
industry as a whole.