Mine Sure: Impact of ValueSpace to Risk Insights On-site

“Traditionally risk engineers get a snapshot of the TSFs or heap leaches consisting of a short site visit and interview session with the responsible management team. Having the satellite information prior to the survey allows us to target our site inspections and questions directly with the site team and address any anomalies.”

“Already we are seeing the cause-and-effect trend developing and how dynamic these structures can be. Changes made through construction or operation quickly manifest and shift behaviour in other areas notably identified in moisture patterns and settlement. To operators with the more traditional monitoring suites these changes may not always be picked up.”

“While the traditional snapshot review of these structures continues to remain valuable, we know from experience and back analysis of global events that failures rarely occur instantaneously and without warning. This leads into discussions on the effectiveness of the monitoring and governance programme.”

“Finally, it is important to ensure this information is shared appropriately - it is not about catching operations out but sharing insights that add to the understanding of how these critical and high consequence structures are behaving in real time and warnings are heeded for the good of all.”