More than 500 people were expected to be on hand for the 2023 Arizona Conference in Tucson, AZ on Dec. 3-4.

The conference annually features sessions focused on the most important topics in the global mining industry with an emphasis on mining activity in the Southwestern Region of the United States. Staying true to this tradition, the 2023 conference, sponsored by South 32, will include technical programming focused on environmental, geotechnical, mineral processing, mining, geology and projects in Mexico and new projects including the Santa Cruz Copper Project, the Excelsior project, Hudbay’s Copper World project and the Tombstone JV gold and silver project, all of which are in Arizona.

Michael Henderson was chosen to deliver the opening keynote presentation. Henderson is the director, The Tailings Center at the Colorado School of Mines. He has spent a nearly 40-year career in the engineering and environmental aspects of mine wastes, including tailings. At Strata-Geo, Henderson is responsible for senior review and leadership on a wide range of engineering projects, including tailings impoundments, water storage reservoirs, heap leach facilities, and mine planning.? Henderson’s technical background includes design-engineering experience on projects in the U.S. and overseas. His presentation, “Recent trends in tailings facilities management following implementation of GISTM.”

Because of an increased focused on the lifecycle and management of tailings and tailings facilities, the International Council of Mining & Metals (ICMM) created the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) in 2020. GISTM was developed “to prevent catastrophic failure and enhance the safety of mine tailings facilities”. All ICMM members committed to implement GISTM following its development. Those operators with “extreme” or “very high potential” consequences of failure were to be in conformance by August 2023, and others not in a state of “safe closure” are to be in conformance by August 2025. This presentation provides a broad overview of tailings facility management and the current state of the practice in light of GISTM. It will then focus on some best practices being implemented by various operators subject to the Standard.
Krishan Parameswaran, an independent consultant formerly with ASARCO LLC will deliver the luncheon talk titled “Sustainable development and the primary copper industry – the coming decades.”