As the global demand for minerals and metals continues to grow, so too does the proliferation of mine tailings—the waste materials left over when mining is complete. Tailings storage facilities, which typically remain long after the life of a mine is over, use dams to contain ground-up rock, sand, silt and water left over from processing valuable minerals such as copper, gold and phosphate. However, the storage facilities have the potential to fail.
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Source: Phys.org