HISTORICAL AND TECHNICAL ISSUES OF MINING TAILINGS DAMS: LONG-TERM ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITIES

Dams are physical infrastructures usually used to dam watercourses, however, such structures also serve for the deposition of other materials, in the case of this work, mineral tailings. In this sense, this literature review presents the history and background of mining dams, reporting the most diverse developments. It describes the main dam disruptions throughout contemporary history, from the 1960s on, at the time of the intensification of the productive scale. Finally, it presents the forms, instruments, methods, and procedures related to tailings dams, as well as the main causes of disruption, by a critical approach. We realize, therefore, that dams constitute spatial roughness of high impact, with considerable risks to the natural environment and society. Therefore, one should take into account not only the environmental liabilities related to dams, because at the time of a rupture, passives derive from social suffering. This liability, from social suffering, must be understood as the cultural, social, physical, psychological, health and memory cost of those affected, something not yet measurable. As advanced as engineering techniques are, little progress has been made, if any, on this type of liability.