Securing tailings dam infrastructure with an innovative monitoring system (SEC4TD)

SEC4TD (Securing tailings dam infrastructure with an innovative monitoring system) is a European project co-funded by the EIT Raw Materials, an initiative of the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology), a body of the European Union. 

SEC4TD proposes an integrated end-to-end (E2E) solution composed of three hardware and software innovative products for mining operators and service providers that will enable multi-scale multi-platform data collection and visualization, events prediction, effective information management and data traceability. SEC4TD will connect the physical and digital world to take advantage of the recent ICT innovations to support safety and sustainability concepts for tailings dam monitoring.

Securing mine sites is a challenging task due to the complexity of the infrastructure, the variety of physical and digital components, the distribution of assets and machineries and the large number of stakeholders involved.

In recent years, mining operators have adopted digital components (ICT) but still use archaic/manual processes to collect and process the data for monitoring and securing issues. This makes the protection of mining sites, tailing dams, tailing storage facilities (TSF) and other mining critical assets a costly and highly complex problem. In this context, TSF are one of the most sensitive asset to be secured in order to guarantee mines infrastructure safety. Historically, there are about 20 dam failures per decade, showing a tendency to shift from developed countries to developing countries and – in the last years – a few of them generated a tendency to mistrust the mining sector.

The aim of SEC4TD is to implement an evolutive monitoring and responsive risk management system for TSFs based on the combination of 3 products: more accurate Internet of Things technology, automatic mathematical model calculation to continually monitor the structural/geotechnical aspects of TSF and a portfolio of innovative applications to support the decision-making.

The SEC4TD will provide benefits to mining sector by improving the safety, efficacy and environment impact of the current mining processes and will also protect the reputation of this sector as well as will facilitate the compliance with new stricter regulations.