Innovative technology for Geomechanical and Geophysical Stability Analysis in Tailings Dams

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Tailings dams used in mining to collect waste of production in huge ponds are extremely risky in case of collapse. The failure rates of the 3,500 tailings dams around the world are extremely high: the list of accidents happened in the last 5 years include at least 4 major events per year, killing more than 500 persons and releasing in the environment millions of cubic meters of toxic material. Existing in-situ geotechnical and geophysical testing devices do not provide accurate information about the critical parameters to verify risk of liquefaction of sloping ground, which is the main causing factor responsible for the collapse of dams. Medusa is an innovative geotechnical testing device allowing preventive identification of slope instability and static / seismic liquefaction of tailings dams in a quick, precise, simple and cost-efficient way. Medusa is an automatic, operator-independent and easy to use testing procedure, with exceptional standardization, repeatability and reliability of the test results. Medusa can become the new standard for routine safety tests in tailing dams. Medusa is derived from the Marchetti Dilatometer Test (DMT) produced and sold by Marchetti, which presents limits, intrinsically related to the use of the pneumatic method, which makes it not applicable in tailings dams. Medusa is an evolution of the DMT concept making it usable in tailings dams: electro-mechanical self-contained and cable-less probe, allowing autonomous and automatic procedure eliminating the pneumatic-electric cable. The solution is a TRL6 and will be tested in operational environment (TRL7) in a tailing dam during 2019 thanks to collaboration with first client. The target of the feasibility study is to analyse the outputs of the tests in operational environment and define the product implementation plan, the manufacturing plan, confirm the investment required and prepare an Investor Ready Business Plan to be discussed with potential industrial or financial investors.