SPOTLIGHT: Mining needs a makeover. Our future depends on it

On November 5, 2015, the Fundão Dam near the city of Mariana in Southeast Brazil collapsed, sending an avalanche of iron-ore tailings over the town of Bento Rodrigues immediately downstream and into the Rio Doce, polluting over 600km of waterways.

Nineteen people were killed, hundreds lost homes and livelihoods, and countless lives have been upended by the social and ecological impacts. Brazil’s president called it “the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history”.

The mining companies involved are being fined tens of billions of dollars in damages and top executives have faced criminal charges. Less than four years later, another catastrophic tailings dam failure killed 272 people in Brumadinho, Brazil. The horrifying deluge was caught on camera and dealt a major blow to the entire mining industry’s reputation.

The number of tailings dam failures has either increased or remained constant since the 1990s and they’re getting larger and more destructive as the size of tailings dams continues to increase. Climate change and extreme weather events further compound the risk.

As the mining industry expands to meet growing global demand for ‘transition minerals’ and metals used in renewable energy technologies, the amount of tailings generated will only escalate further as will the size of tailings dams.

Mining companies have a need and a responsibility to better manage the risk of tailings dam failure or face an increasing loss of community confidence, trust and their social license to operate.

The alternative is the enactment of laws banning high risk and unacceptable tailings management practices, as occurred in Brazil following the Brumadinho disaster.

Dairi Prima: a case in point

In Indonesia, a country that aspires to become a hub of transitional mineral and metal mining, a Supreme Court ruling handed down in August 2024 would invalidate the environmental permit for one of the most risky mining operations I have ever looked into: the planned Dairi Prima Mineral zinc mine in North Sumatra. 

I was recently tasked with assessing this mine’s tailings storage facility design, for submission as evidence in the Supreme Court case. After reviewing the limited documentation provided by the company and the government, it’s clear to me that the site conditions represent worst case scenarios in every respect.

Rainfall and earthquakes occur with high frequency, the topography is steep and prone to landslides, and the foundation beneath the proposed dam is weak. This combination could make the proposed tailings dam highly susceptible to failure, threatening the lives and livelihoods of the thousands people living downstream of the proposed dam and the surrounding environment.

The limited plans I have seen do not meet the minimum requirements of the Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD) Guidelines on tailings dams. These are internationally accepted best-practice guidelines that have been adopted in Indonesia and which Dairi Prima Mineral claims to satisfy.

As a member of the working party for the ANCOLD Guidelines, I can say with authority that the proposed tailings dam should be rejected due to its high risk of failure under the extreme site conditions and inadequate proposed design.

However, the Indonesian government, the mining company, and its financiers—including a Chinese state-controlled corporation that recently announced a US$245 million loan to keep the project afloat—seem determined to go ahead with the mine and the proposed tailings dam, despite the legal challenges and high risks. Both the government and mining company are pushing back on the recent court ruling, pledging to request a judicial review and to continue with construction of the mine.

The fate of this case is a litmus test for tailings management under extreme site conditions, which could impact on the mining industry in Indonesia and globally. 

Safe mining is everyone’s business

For mining companies, the financial and legal risk—on top of the obvious moral failure—of pushing forward projects that do not meet international safety standards is significant.

The reputational risk of human and environmental disasters is also an existential threat to the industry, which already faces severe reputational and recruitment difficulties globally, and pressure from investors, insurers and governments to improve tailings management.

Metal and mineral end-users, including huge swathes of the global economy, from health care, through electronics and power generation to construction and transportation, including electric vehicle manufacturers, depend upon a sustainable and reliable supply of transition minerals and metals to support their businesses.

They cannot afford to look the other way as risky projects get pushed through, given the threat potential that disasters pose to their supply chains.

Indonesia, and any state looking to position itself as a future mining hub, should be focused on building a reputation of adherence to human rights and sustainability standards, not a lax approach to safety.

In addition to the preservation of human life and the environment, the future of mining is at stake, and with it the chances of a just and rapid transition to clean energy use.  

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