Tailings Dams: Why Autonomous Monitoring Is Already a Regulatory Obligation
After the Brumadinho and Mariana collapses, Chilean regulations tightened monitoring requirements. We analyze what the regulations require and how WORSITE meets each one.
On January 25, 2019, the collapse of the Brumadinho tailings dam in Brazil caused 270 deaths and became the worst mining accident of the 21st century. Four years earlier, the collapse of the Fundão dam in Mariana had caused 19 deaths and Brazil’s worst environmental disaster in history.
Both events had something in common: the existing monitoring systems did not detect warning signals with enough advance notice — or if they did, they did not trigger the right actions.
The Chilean regulatory context
Chile produces 27% of the world’s copper and operates more than 700 active or closing tailings deposits. The mining industry is the country’s economic backbone, and tailings dams are its most critical safety and environmental liability.
Following the Brazil events, Chile’s National Geology and Mining Service (SERNAGEOMIN) updated tailings monitoring standards. New requirements include:
- Continuous piezometric monitoring: permanent pore pressure measurement at critical dam points
- Displacement control: recording of horizontal and vertical movements in the structure
- Emergency Action Plan (EAP): automated response protocols when thresholds are exceeded
- Periodic reporting to SERNAGEOMIN: monthly reports with instrumental data and trend analysis
Complying with these requirements through traditional methods — manual field visits, analog instruments, subsequent analysis — is expensive, slow, and exposes personnel to hazardous zones.
The manual monitoring problem
A tailings dam is not a static object. Its geometry, internal pressure and stability change constantly in response to variables such as fresh material deposition, rainfall, seismic events and temperature.
A geotechnical engineer visiting the dam once a week to read piezometers isn’t monitoring the dam — they’re taking a snapshot of a dynamic system. Between one visit and the next, dozens of relevant events may have occurred and passed.
In the worst case — and the history of Brumadinho documents this — a dam can collapse within hours of the first detectable instability signals becoming apparent. A week between readings is not enough.
How autonomous monitoring works with WORSITE
SBY WORSITE deploys a network of wireless sensors over the dam — piezometers, inclinometers, extensometers and seismic accelerometers. Sensors transmit data every minute to the central system, which analyzes it in real time.
The system has three alert layers:
Level 1 — Attention: a sensor value exceeds a surveillance threshold. The system sends a notification to the technical team for review within the next 24 hours.
Level 2 — Alert: multiple sensors show converging trends, or a sensor exceeds the alert threshold. The system immediately notifies the responsible engineer and emergency team.
Level 3 — Emergency: parameters indicate imminent risk. The system automatically activates the Emergency Action Plan: authority notifications, access blocking, evacuation protocol initiation.
This process eliminates dependence on human judgment at the most critical moment — when people are under pressure, exhausted, or simply unavailable.
Regulatory compliance without effort
A frequently underestimated aspect of WORSITE is automatic regulatory report generation. The system records all instrumental data in the format required by SERNAGEOMIN and automatically generates monthly reports with trend analysis included.
For a mine manager, this means regulatory compliance stops being an administrative burden — it happens automatically as a byproduct of operational monitoring. At mines where we’ve implemented WORSITE, time spent preparing tailings reports decreased from 40 monthly hours to less than 2 hours of review.
The liability question
Beyond regulation, there is a liability question: in the event of an incident, can the company demonstrate that it implemented all available technical means to prevent the accident?
With the current state of technology, manual tailings dam monitoring is no longer best practice — it’s obsolete practice. Courts and regulatory authorities are beginning to look at what autonomous monitoring technologies were available and not implemented.
Autonomous tailings monitoring isn’t an expense — it’s the most effective risk coverage that exists.
SBY WORSITE provides 24/7 autonomous monitoring of tailings dams and waste dumps. Request an evaluation of your deposit.