Tailings dams accidents
Tailings are materials left after the valuable fraction of an ore is seperated from the worthless fraction. Tailings can contain toxic and harzardous materials, and often are dliluted in a water sluury and stored behind large earthen dams. Failure of tailings dams can produce a sudden and dangerous flood of hazardous material.
Articles: Tailings dams accidents
Buffalo Creek dam failure
A mine-waste impoundment located on the Middle Fork of the Buffalo Creek watershed in Logan County, West Virginia failed a minute or so before 8...
Church Rock tailings spill
Early in the morning of July 16, 1979, there was a breach in the earthen retaining dam of a tailings pond at the United Nuclear...