Webinar – Lessons Learned from Tailings Dam Failures – January 20

The Flexible Geomembrane Institute will be hosting a free webinar at 2 p.m. CST January 20, 2026.

This webinar will discuss lessons from recent tailings dam failures that have had major consequences. These tailings dams were marginally stable before failure due to a combination of factors, such as, high phreatic surface, steep slope, fine-grained tailings, dynamic loadings, etc. The severe consequences and fatalities caused by these failures have instituted significant change in Chile and Brazil after the El Cobre and Feijao tailings dam failures, respectively. These changes include improved seismic design, tailings and phreatic surface management, and development of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM), which will be discussed during the webinar. Finally the webinar will suggest that tailings management must improve to recover community confidence and trust in the mining industry and tailings storage facilities.

The webinar will be presented by David Williams, Ph.D., CPEng, and is eligible for 1.0 PDH.

Click here to register or get more information.