The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) is saddened by the collapse of an embankment at the Jagersfontein mine’s Tailing Storage Facility (TSF), in the Free State on Sunday morning, 11 September 2022 that to date has claimed the life of one person. SAICE calls for all stakeholders in the civil, mining and geotechnical engineering environments, across various sectors, to mobilise their resources, knowledge and engineering capacity to prevent such disasters in the future.
The Jagersfontein TSF collapse has come at a time when the Tailings industry worldwide is adjusting to the latest international standards as set out in the “Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management” (GISTM) which was published in August 2020. The GISTM provides a framework for safe TSF management of operational, decommissioned and closed tailings facilities with the aim of achieving zero harm to people and the environment.
This incident has brought to light, several underlying and significant concerns impacting the country’s tailings management and regulating environment.
- Outdated standards and regulations on TSF management is one of the concerns that plagues the South African Tailings industry. The current most relevant standard related to TSF design, operations, monitoring and maintenance is the South African Bureau of Standards Code of Practice for Mine Residue, SABS 0286, which was promulgated in 1998 following the Merriespruit TSF failure in 1994. While this document has served the industry well, it has not been updated since and remains the South African standard on the management of tailings facilities.
The SABS 0286 standard has recently been reviewed by an expert panel in collaboration with SAICE’s Geotechnical Division – Tailings sub-committee, to align it with international best practice in design, operation, monitoring and management of TSF’s. The review committee has compiled a draft updated standard which was submitted to the South African National Standards (SANS) committee for review. It is SAICE’s opinion that the vetting and approval of this document should be expedited and published without delay to ensure that the standard of TSF management in South Africa aligns with international best practice.
Although many of South Africa’s tailings engineers and mine owners strive to adopt and conform to international best practices and standards, such as the GISTM, strict governance in this regard remains a concern and not all mines have formally adopted this standard.
Limited information is currently available on the Jagersfontein TSF failure, and it is therefore not possible to speculate what led to the failure on that Sunday morning. It is hoped that this will come out of the investigations, and the industry will learn from it.
- Tailings engineering skills and capacity are at a critical shortage in the public sector, when it comes to TSF design, operation, monitoring and management. Engineers with the required knowledge and skills have not been employed by regulatory bodies that have oversight of these facilities.
This means that deteriorating facilities can go unnoticed/unregulated for extended periods of time. This is of particular concern where tailings engineers from the private sector are not engaged by mining companies in the design and monitoring of a TSF.
While SAICE cannot comment on the Jagersfontein mine operations, increasing the knowledge and expertise of engineers in the regulatory bodies that inspect residue or waste facilities, such as a TSF, can increase the competency of governance of these structures.
Building capacity and expertise within the regulatory bodies and public sector should be a priority. This will however take time, and government should work with the facility owners and the tailings industry as a whole to develop a robust short-term plan to evaluate the state of TSFs in South Africa.
- Competent engineers should be involved throughout the entire lifecycle of a TSF, such as the Jagersfontein mine. South Africa has world-class civil engineering professionals. The successful design, operation, monitoring and management of a TSF requires a multi-disciplinary team of engineers who needs to be intimately involved in how we engineer solutions related to each TSF.
SAICE contributes to change by providing knowledge and expertise to members of our professional institution through regular technical lectures and conferences and is available to offer its members expertise and skills to the public and private sectors through collaborative partnerships.
SACIE’s Geotechnical Division is technically best placed to offer general advice and expertise. “The Tailings sub-committee can assist regulatory bodies and the Jagersfontein stakeholders by way of providing general advice on the investigation of such failures and recommend suitable tailings specialists to lead them. The findings and lessons should be made public and help to promote a safer future.”
SAICE’s Environmental Engineering Division expects that that in the face of this tragedy, the mining industry, regulators and society will learn to manage the safety and environmental aspects of these tailings operations more successfully in the future.
SAICE’s Water Division states that the lessons of the Merriespruit disaster in 1994 may have been forgotten. “President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise to compensate the victims is commended, and it is trusted that this will be speedy. A thorough and expeditious investigation is urged to determine the causes of the disaster and that justice is served. Responsible remedial action is required to render the site safe, enforce appropriate safety measures and actively maintain such measures to ensure a repeat incident does not occur.”
SAICE sympathises with the victims and families of the recent Jagersfontein disaster. We advocate that rebuilding of the community following the resultant damage from the Jagersfontein disaster, must be done through collaborative partnerships, which should be underpinned by trust, good governance holistic and sustainable assessment, and transparent processes. The findings from any investigation should be studied and as many lessons learnt as possible to ensure that a similar disaster does not occur again, and that South Africa’s mining industry continue to strive to achieve the ultimate goal of zero harm to people and the environment.
