http://rt.com/news/178320-canada-mine-tailings-breach/ 

Oppps!!

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http://www.mining.com/amazing-aerial-video-of-mount-polley-tailings-breach-76060 

4.5 million cubic metres of sands escaped, at least not acid generating at ph 8.5 but fixing that dam wall will not be easy.

I think the main problem here is the removal of the copper content in the tailings/ effluent water.
After a similar failure in Spain a group of people pointed out that the wartime heaps at Nenthead, might be washed into the Tyne.
This led eventually to their removal and the regeneration of
the area where the heaps opposite Brownley Hill mine used to be.

Its OK everyone, the director of the mining firm says that grey sludge was of 'drinking water quality' and he'd still drink the local water, somebody get that man a pint glass! :lol:

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In all fairness the water in the dam was close to potable quality, it's the suspended solids comprising quartz, feldspar and clays with traces of sulphides that are the issue. Doubtless we will see the yoghurt weavers and sundry tree huggers complaining on the net without thinking that their computers need copper, gold, rare earth's, lithium and nickel / cadmium to even exist. Perhaps they think metals are grown?

The Mt Polley dam failure has yet to be explained and the company had a very good environmental record to date. No matter how good the engineering sometimes things fail and this does seem to be one of those cases. However unlike the Aznalcollar dam failure in Spain some years ago the tails from Mt Polly are relatively environmentally benign and the ecosystem will recover quite quickly.

Not being an apologist or a company spokesman just trying to look at this accident with a degree of common sense.

The dam probably failed due to climate change.

Clearly, people with range rovers need to pay a higher rate of tax.

Looks like the TMF design engineers are running for the hills:

A breach at Imperial Metals' Mount Polley Mine tailings pond in Canada’s British Columbia may have been avoided had the company listened to concerns raised by engineers that designed the containment system, Knight Piésold Consulting said. In a statement posted Friday, the Vancouver-based company claims its professionals had warned mine owners in February 2011 that the storage pond was "getting large." "The original engineering done by Knight Piésold Ltd. accommodated a significantly lower water volume than the tailings storage facility reportedly held at the time of the breach," it said. The firm, which also posted the 2011 letter to Imperial Metals, states that it highlighted at the time how important it was for them to monitor and operate properly such tailings “to prevent problems in the future."

Lets not trivialize this with nonsense about the myth of global warming please.