OZ Minerals says it is digitising tailings dam inspection at its Prominent Hill copper-gold mining operation in northern South Australia. Three camera units have been installed at the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) as part of a three-month trial, to allow its operators to remotely inspect the TSF, fill in their daily inspection log sheet and create case management digitally. The trial is a collaboration between Prominent Hill, Carrapateena and Convergen, and the mining company says “presents a truly new agile and innovative way of working on site.”

Prominent Hill has one Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) located within the Integrated Waste Landform (IWL) which includes the Waste Rock Dump (WRD). As an IWL, the TSF is surrounded by a wide buttress of mine waste forming the Southern WRD within which a clay-lined perimeter embankment is constructed. The TSF is constructed with the downstream construction method. OZ Minerals’ Tailings Global Performance Standard applies across the company and sets out its approach to managing tailings within the TSFs. The Standard is written to ensure TSFs are designed, constructed and managed to provide for the safe, long term impoundment of mine tailings and residues to prevent uncontrolled releases and seepage to groundwater. It conducts groundwater sampling to monitor parameters such as depth to water, salinity, pH, and metal concentrations as part of our tailings management. OZ Minerals’ Australian TSFs have been designed, constructed and operated in accordance with ANCOLD (Australian National Committee on Large Dams) requirements.

In 2020, Prominent Hill also commissioned the Malu paste plant to utilise this waste stream as a valuable resource to support the mining process by using it in underground mining areas that require backfilling. This utilisation of tailings as a substitute has reduced reliance on the Prominent Hill TSF, reducing risks for all stakeholders associated with storage, management, closure and licensing.