ANDY FOURIE

HONOR LECTURE - ENSURING GEOTECHNICAL STABILITY OF FILTERED TAILINGS STACKS

Andy is a civil engineer, graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. After working as a geotechnical engineer for SRK Consulting on a variety of tailings storage facilities and earth dam projects, he moved to the UK and obtained a PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from Imperial College in London. He then spent 15 years at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where he was appointed as Professor of Civil Engineering and led the Waste Impact Minimisation Programme research group, which investigated issues relating to tailings management and landfilling in South Africa. Andy joined the Australian Centre for Geomechanics in 2005 as a Professorial Fellow in Environmental Geotechnics and moved to the Department of Civil, Environmental & Mining Engineering at the University of Western Australia (UWA) in 2008, where he is Professor of Civil & Mining Engineering. The focus of his research work is the safe and environmentally sound management of mining, industrial and municipal solid wastes and recently had several industry-funded research projects, including TAILLIQ and Filtered Tailings Stability. He is currently the Director of Future Tails, which is funded by BHP and Rio Tinto, and through Future Tails he has established a fully online Graduate Certificate in Tailings Management at UWA. The first students are due to graduate from this programme in mid-2023. Together with Prof Ramon Verdugo, in 2022 he presented the State of the Art of Mine Tailings at the 20th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, held in Sydney. Andy currently serves on a number of Independent Technical Review Boards (ITRBs) around the world and maintains strong links with industry through these and other consulting practices, thus helping to inform current and future research initiatives at UWA.

ADRIAN R. RUSSELL

PARTIAL SATURATION INFLUENCES ON THE CPT, STRENGTH AND STABILITY OF SILTY TAILINGS

Adrian Russell is a Professor in Geotechnical Engineering at UNSW Sydney. He is also an Australian Research Council Future Fellow which requires him to devote 100% of his time to research on tailings liquefaction. His expertise is in laboratory element testing of soils and tailings, laboratory controlled CPTs and earthquake simulation, particle and pore geometry characterization, unsaturated soil mechanics and cavity expansion theory, and knowledge transfer to industry.
He is an Australian representative on TC106 and TC221, which are International Technical Committees on unsaturated soil mechanics and tailings within the ISSMGE. He does expert review work on the stability of TSFs. In 2019 he spent a 6-month (0.4FTE) secondment with Pells Sullivan Meynink Pty Ltd, providing expertise on mine waste projects.
He was awarded his PhD in 2005 and BE in 1998, each by UNSW Sydney. His first academic appointment was a lectureship at the University of Bristol in the UK (2003-2007). This was followed by a move UNSW Sydney where has been ever since.

WALDEMAR ŚWIDZIŃSKI

THE KEY ROLE OF COMPREHENSIVE MONITORING SYSTEMS IN ENSURING THE SAFE OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TSFS

Prof. Waldemar Świdziński, PhD, DSc: Permanent professor at the Institute of Hydro-Engineering, over the years Head of the Department of Geomechanics, from 2016 - Director of the Institute. Author and co-author of over 130 publications and 3 books on marine and inland civil engineering, specifically focused on: experimental mechanics laboratory element testing oriented, experimental identification and theoretical description of liquefaction of saturated and unsaturated soils, soil-water-structure interaction, modelling of groundwater flow and pollution transport, various problems of large tailings storage facilities. Rich engineering experience in an assessment of the stability of slopes, cliffs and earth dams. For 40 years an expert for Żelazny Most TSF. Recently, a member of the International Board of Experts for this facility. Member of two technical committees at the International Society of Soils Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering: TC203 on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering and TC221 on Tailings and Mine Wastes. At the domestic market a member of various societies and scientific committees. Currently a Secretary of the Polish Geotechnical Committee.

LUIS A. TORRES-CRUZ

TAILINGS DAM FAILURES: CAUSES AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Luis holds a PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is currently a senior lecturer at Wits where his teaching contributions include postgraduate courses on tailings management and critical state soil mechanics. The main driver of his research has been the prevention of catastrophic failures of tailings dams. This has involved topics such as slope stability analysis, laboratory testing, in situ testing, and analysis of satellite imagery. Luis's achievements include best paper in South Africa's Young Geotechnical Engineer's conference, finalist of the RM Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Journal, winner of the Jennings award of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering, co-author of a 2022 state-of-the-art paper on the geotechnics of tailings dams, and winner of the Barry van Wyk award which supports emerging researchers at Wits University. Luis's research efforts have benefitted from collaborations with other academics as well as interactions with industry. Besides publications in international conferences and journals, he has presented his research findings at multiple consulting companies, mining houses, and universities, both in South Africa and abroad. Luis is a chartered engineer with the engineering council of the UK and is a member of the British and South African Institutes of Civil Engineering.

LUIS VALENZUELA

THE CHALLENGE OF LARGE WASTE ROCK DUMPS

Civil Engineer, Universidad de Chile, 1973 and MSc in Soil Mechanics, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, 1975. More than 40 years of experience in large mining and infrastructure projects in several countries. After working in Brazil in earth and rockfill dams for hydroelectric projects he came back to Chile and become co-founder and partner of Geotécnica Consultores, and Arcadis Chile. Since 2016 is a fully independent geotechnical consultant. During the last 20 years he has been involved in mining projects mainly focused in tailings dams, waste rock dumps, tunnels, and mining environmental issues. He has participated in several Independent Review Boards for mining projects in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, and Peru. He has an active participation in international and Chilean learned societies as well as in several professional and business associations such as ISSMGE, Vice President for Central and South America (1994-1997); Institute of Civil Engineers of Chile (IICH) former president (2004-2005); Academy of Engineering of Chile numerary member; Argentina Academy of Engineering, correspondent member. He is also representative of the Institute of Mining Engineers of Chile in the Global Action on Tailings international task force. In 2015 he was awarded with the 2015 Gold Medal of the IICH and in the same year he delivered the Casagrande Lecture in the Pan American conference of the ISSMGE on the subject “Hydraulic Fill and Sand Tailings Dams”. Author of more than 50 publications related to soil mechanics, rock mechanics, tunnels and underground excavations, slope stability, landslides, earth dams, hydraulic fill dams, tailings dams, large waste rock dumps, and seismic analysis of earth works.

SUSUMU YASUDA

SEISMIC INSPECTION AND COUNTERMEASURES FOR EXISTING TAILINGS DAM IN JAPAN

Dr. Susumu YASUDA is professor emeritus at Tokyo Denki University. He was born in Hiroshima in 1948. He received his B.S. in civil engineering from Kyushu Institute of Technology, and his Dr. of Engineering in civil engineering from University of Tokyo in 1975. Following his Dr. of Engineering, he worked at Kiso-jiban Consultants Co. as a geotechnical consulting engineer. He joined Kyushu Institute of Technology in 1986, and then moved to Tokyo Denki University in 1994. He was the Vice President of Tokyo Denki University from 2016 to 2017. He retired in 2018 and is currently a visiting professor at Tokyo Denki University. His main research interest is in soil liquefaction during earthquakes. He visited many countries to investigate the damage due to liquefaction. He was the Vice President of the Japanese Geotechnical Society in 2006 to 2007 and the President of Japan Association for Earthquake Engineering from 2013 to 2014. In the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, he was the chairman of the Asian Technical Committee (ATC) No.10 on Urban Geo-informatics in 2002 to 2006 and the chairman of the ATC No.3 on Geotechnology for Natural Hazards in 2006 to 2010.

GERALD VERBEEK

LECTURE GERALD VERBEEK

Gerald Verbeek received his BSc and MSc in Civil Engineering from Delft University of Technology. After spending about 20 years in the Oil and Gas industry, Gerald started a management consulting business in 2004. One of the activities of his firm is helping European companies with their business in North America and as part of that he has been active in promoting soil and foundation testing philosophies and equipment. In the area of soil testing (and especially cone penetration testing) this is done though Royal Eijkelkamp, where he serves as the Technical Advisor CPT, and BCE, where he serves as the Commercial Director. Gerald is active in various organizations in the United States of America: TRB (as a member of AKG20 and AKG70), DFI (where he serves as the chair of the Sustainability Committee) and ASTM (as chair of D18.01, the committee for surface and subsurface characterization). He is also the chair of the joint industry users group for CPT, that was created in cooperation with FHWA, Geo-Institute, DOTs, Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) and Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committees AKG20 and AKG60 to address CPT users’ needs.

PAULO RICARDO BEHRENS DA FRANCA

Education: Geological Engineer (Federal University of Ouro Preto – 1986); Civil Engineer (Escola de Engenharia Kennedy, 1989); MSc Mining Engineering (Queen´s University, 1997); MBA Project Management (Fundação Dom Cabral, 2000). Professional background: Itaminas Comércio de Minérios SA (geotechnical engineer, 1986 to 1989), Minerações Brasileiras Reunidas SA – MBR (Head of the Geotechnical Department, 1989-2006), Vale SA (Geotechnical Manager, 2006 to 2009 and Planning and Development General Manager, 2009 to 2010), VOGBR Recursos Hídricos e Geotecnia (Partner/ Technical Director, 2010 to 2014) and Independent Consultant (F&Z Consultoria e Projetos, since 2014). Mr. Franca has several papers published in National and International conferences. He is qualified as Geotechnics QP (“Qualified Person”), for attendance of JORC (Australia) and NI-43.101 (Canada) Standards. Mr. Franca serve as EoR (Engineer of Records) for his projects in Brazil. Currently, he is an ITRB member for Hydro and Mineração Serra Verde, besides working as a facilitator for ITRB groups at Vale.

PAULO R. C. CELLA

Director in BVP Eng. since 2001. Doctor´s Degree from Universidade de São Paulo – USP in 2003. More than 38 years of experience as designer and supervisor of geotechnical projects, engineering geology and geomechanics, comprising tailings dams and water intake dams for mining, covering field investigations and laboratory tests in soil and rock, foundations of geotechnical structures, dry stacking for filtered tailings, de-characterization of upstream raised tailings dams, open pits and underground workings, civil slopes, industrial and mining tunnels, hydraulic and road tunnels and waste dumps.

LUIZ GUILHERME DE MELLO

Luiz Guilherme is a Civil Engineer graduated at the Polytechnical School of the Univ. of São Paulo in 1974, having MSc at the Imperial College in 1977. Since the early stages of his career Luiz Guilherme lectured as Assistant Professor at Polytechnical School USP, and worked in the consulting group Victor de Mello and Assoc, evolving to found Vecttor Projetos. He has participated and consulted for many important infrastructure projects in Brasil and abroad, mainly in South and Central America, and Africa. His experience includes embankment dams and large fills, tailings dams, tunnels and metro lines, port backup areas and breakwaters, and foundations of large structures. Has participated in Boards of Consultants and Review Boards of many large projects, as well as in investigation and identification of causation of impacting failures in large infrastructure projects. Intensively contributes with Technical Committees of the ISSMGE as a representative of Brasil in the topics of Mine Tailings and Environmental Control, which developed to be Tailings and Mine Waste TC 221, as well as on the Forensic Geotechnical Engineering TC 302 since the formation of these TCs. He has more than 100 technical papers, including relevant special lectures in conferences worldwide.

FERNANDO SCHNAID

Graduated in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (1980), Master in Civil Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (1983), Doctorate in Engineering Science (PhD) - University of Oxford (1990) and Post -PhD from the University of Western Australia (2004). He is currently a Full Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. He has experience in Civil Engineering, with emphasis on Geotechnics, working mainly on the following topics: soil-structure interaction, geotechnical investigation, behavior of geo-materials.

FERNANDO ANTÔNIO MEDEIROS MARINHO

Civil Engineer graduated from the University of Pernambuco (1983), with a master's degree in Soil Mechanics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (1986), a Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of London - Imperial College (1994), and a post-doctorate from Arizona State University (2008). Currently, a tenured professor at the University of São Paulo, he is affiliated with both the Institute of Geosciences and the Polytechnic School of USP. Additionally, he serves as the vice-coordinator of the postgraduate program in Mineral Resources and Hydrogeology at the Institute of Geosciences. He holds a position as a member of the Deliberative Council of the National Monument Engenho Ruínas São Jorge dos Erasmos. His research endeavors encompass collaborative projects with industry partners and public funding agencies, focusing on the following areas: Slope stability, earth dams, unsaturated soils, climatic effects on geotechnical structures, landfill cover systems for waste disposal, field and laboratory experimental studies, behavior of mining tailings, and flow in porous media.

DAVID HIGHT

Dr David Hight is a geotechnical engineer with more than 50 years of experience in research and practice in the UK and around the world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering. David specialises in forensic geotechnical engineering, drawing on his background in and knowledge of site characterisation and the behaviour of soils and rocks. He has been called on to investigate the stability and performance of reclamations, tailings dams, excavated and natural slopes, tunnels, road pavements, ore cargoes, retaining structures, and foundations to onshore and offshore structures.

LUIZ PANIAGO NEVES

LECTURE LUIZ PANIAGO NEVES

Geologist graduated from the University of Brasília (UnB - 2006), trainee and geologist at Votorantim Metais (2007 - 2009), geoprocessing manager at the Environmental Agency of Brasília (IBRAM - 2010), master's degree in Economic Geology and Prospecting (UnB - 2011), specialist in mineral resources, specialist in dam safety (University of Bahia - UFBA - 2013), specialist in dam engineering and geotechnics (PUC/MG - 2022), specialized in risk management, coordinator of mineral research inspection (ANM - 2015), mining dam safety manager at ANM (2018 to 2022), superintendent of mining dam safety at ANM (2022), honored with the National Civil Defense Medal - Commander Degree, and with the Civil Defense Merit Medal of MG.

PAULA AZEVEDO DE CASTRO

LECTURE PAULA AZEVEDO DE CASTRO

Partner in the Mining and Risk Management Practice at Cescon, Barrieu, Flesch & Barreto Advogados, serving domestic and international clients for almost two decades.

She holds an International Executive MBA from Ohio University, an MBA in Business and Economics Law from Fundação Getúlio Vargas – FGV, and a Postgraduate degree in
Legal Regime of Mineral Resources from Faculdade Milton Campos. Executive MBA from Fundação Dom Cabral.

She is the current President of the Mining Law Committee of OAB/MG for 2022 - 2024 and a member of the Legal Committee of Women in Mining.
Ranked as band 3 by Chambers and Partners in the Energy and Natural Resources area, she was ranked 1st among the most admired female lawyers in the state of Minas Gerais and 2nd in Brazil by Revista Análise Mulher (Analysis Woman Magazine).

She represents domestic and foreign clients in mergers and acquisitions transactions and provides advice on regulatory issues related to mining, including the acquisition and sale of mining companies and mining rights. She also assists with regulatory administrative procedures involving mining, energy, and projects related to mineral research, mines, dams, hydroelectric plants, railways, pipelines, transmission lines, and industrial facilities. She is renowned for her top-tier practice in the regulation of mining waste dam safety.