Went to an interesting presentation last night hosted by MinSouth at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) building in London. This was entitled Tailing Monitoring. Philip Shaw of SureWave Technology Ltd gave the presentation on technology for monitoring of tailings dams. After the presentation, panel discussion was held with Hans Otto, Senior Tailings Engineer with Golder Associates and Brett Garland of Knight Piésold Consulting.
Surewave installs up to four monitors to measure the P & S waves from the slightest movement in the ground. The analysis extracts working noise from all the background working noise. This technology is used to monitor tailings dam stability. The smallest movement can apparently be picked out. It can also be used to monitor the stability of underground openings and rock slopes.