How Tasmania helped shape modern tailings management

As demand for tailings capability grows and industry expectations continue to evolve, the mining industry is facing a challenge: how to build and transfer knowledge in a discipline where experience matters.

Over the past 25 years, western Tasmania has played a significant role in developing that capability. Engineers who built their careers in the region have gone on to support tailings projects across Australia and internationally, sharing lessons learned in one of the industry's most demanding operating environments.

Tasmania offers conditions that accelerate learning. High rainfall, often exceeding 2.5 metres annually in some regions, creates complex water management challenges. Steep terrain drives the need for large dams, while the state's long mining history means engineers regularly work with legacy facilities and environmental considerations associated with historic operations.

Our long-standing relationships with mining clients across Tasmania have enabled our teams to work across the full lifecycle of tailings storage facilities (TSF), from environmental impact assessments and design through to construction, operations and closure.

That experience has supported the development of tailings management solutions tailored to complex site conditions. These include flow-through waste rock structures and tailings facilities designed to manage significant water inflows. They also include integrated mine waste management strategies that use waste rock and tailings in embankment construction, improving cost efficiency and encapsulating acid-forming waste within dam embankments.

Tasmania has also contributed to advancing closure practices. Work at Tasmanian sites including Mt Lyell, Hellyer, Kara, Avebury, Renison, Henty, Rosebery and Savage River mines has informed closure capping and rehabilitation strategies, strengthening industry understanding of long-term facility closure. 

Tailings management has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. TSFs must accommodate changing mine plans, production demands and facility expansions while continuing to perform safely long after mining operations cease. They also present complex challenges associated with water management, geotechnical stability and the potential for acid and metalliferous drainage.

The consequences of failure can be severe for communities and ecosystems. The 2019 Brumadinho TSF tragedy in Brazil became a defining moment for the industry, prompting a renewed focus on governance, accountability and transparency.

The Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD) tailings guidelines, together with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM), have reshaped expectations around governance, accountability and risk ownership. The GISTM established an industry-wide objective of zero harm to people and the environment, placing greater emphasis on risk management, stakeholder engagement, transparency and the role of the Engineer of Record.

These changes have increased demand for experienced tailings specialists at a time when the profession faces growing skills shortages. For organisations involved in tailings management, this has reinforced the importance of developing new talent and sharing knowledge across regions and disciplines. 

Engineers who built their experience in Tasmania have supported tailings projects across Australia and internationally, helping strengthen capability in countries including the Philippines, New Zealand, Canada and Chile.

Through formal knowledge-sharing sessions, our global teams exchange lessons from projects and evolving approaches to tailings management.

This exchange has delivered tangible benefits. Experience gained in Tasmania’s high-rainfall environments has informed mining projects in the Philippines, where steep terrain and challenging climatic conditions create similar design considerations. Exposure to large-scale operations in Chile has introduced new perspectives on dewatered filtered tailings stacks, sand dams and emerging monitoring technologies.

These lessons helped inform the development of InsightVision, our digital monitoring platform, which has since been applied across multiple tailings storage facilities.

The result is a connected and diverse technical community where ideas developed in one region can strengthen outcomes in another. 

One of the greatest challenges facing the tailings industry is people.

Experienced professionals are retiring faster than the next generation can be trained, while demand for tailings specialists continues to grow. Building and transferring knowledge has become one of the industry's most pressing priorities.

To help address this challenge, we established the School of Tailings, a structured learning initiative designed to build capability across the profession, which has trained more than 200 people to date. Other initiatives, including internal GHD Engineer of Record forums, have also supported formal training and knowledge sharing across our global teams. We have also trained more than 1,500 mining operations personnel in Asia-Pacific through our GHD TSF Surveillance training course, helping strengthen understanding of tailings risks.

These initiatives reflect a broader industry reality: Technical excellence depends on the ability to capture experience and pass it on. 

The challenge ahead extends beyond designing safer facilities. The industry must continue to retain knowledge, apply emerging technologies effectively and prepare the next generation of engineers to manage facilities that will remain safe, chemically and geotechnically stable long after mining operations have ceased.

The experience developed in Tasmania highlights the value of long-term learning environments where practical experience, collaboration and knowledge sharing help strengthen tailings management across the industry.