@article{ref1,
title="Reported tailings dam failures. A review of the European incidents in the worldwide context",
journal="Journal of hazardous materials",
year="2008",
author="Rico, M. and Benito, G. and Salgueiro, A. R. and Díez-Herrero, A. and Pereira, H. G.",
volume="152",
number="2",
pages="846-852",
abstract="A detailed search and re-evaluation of the known historical cases of tailings dam failure was carried out. A corpus of 147 cases of worldwide tailings dam disasters, from which 26 located in Europe, was compiled in a database. This contains six sections, including dam location, its physical and constructive characteristics, actual and putative failure cause, sludge hydrodynamics, socio-economical consequences and environmental impacts. Europe ranks in second place in reported accidents (18%), more than one third of them in dams 10-20 m high. In Europe, the most common cause of failure is related to unusual rain, whereas there is a lack of occurrences associated with seismic liquefaction, which is the second cause of tailings dam breakage elsewhere in the world. Moreover, over 90% of incidents occurred in active mines, and only 10% refer to abandoned ponds. The results reached by this preliminary analysis show an urgent need for EU regulations regarding technical standards of tailings disposal.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0304-3894",
doi="10.1016/j.jhazmat.2007.07.050",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2007.07.050"
}