Behind the Scenes with Bryan

Carlos is the RTFE at the Cobre Panama mine which is owned by First Quantum Minerals. The mine is currently under shutdown orders by the Panamanian government. Carlos and I discuss the challenges of maintaining a tailings facility that is in hiatus.

Lindsay is an expert in risk management and Executive Director at World Mine Tailings Failures. We discuss here amazing career, and her involvement in tailings which came to her later in life.

Justin is an Associate Partner and Principal Civil Engineer at SRK in Johannesburg, South Africa, specializing in mine closure. Justin and I discuss his approach to closure projects.

Tim Fitton is an independent tailings/geotechnical engineer in Australia, running Fitton Tailings Consultants. Amongst other things Tim and I discuss tailings beach slope prediction.

Marcelo is a geotechnical engineer with Red Earth Engineering Pty Ltd, now a part of Geosyntec. In this episode Marcelo discusses the material point method (MPM) and the consequences of getting dam breach analysis wrong.

Vikram Yadav is an Associate Professor in the chemical and biological engineering department at the University of British Columbia and the Director, MEL Program in Sustainable Process Engineering. He is also the Co-Founder of Tersa Earth Innovations. The company is advancing unique biological technologies that extract toxins, metals and metalloids from mine water.

Mike Ravella is the Chief Innovation Officer at Veracio. In this episode we discuss Veracio’s research, innovation and technology for the mining industry.

Sabrina is the founder and CEO of SOOP Strategies. We talk about her amazing career and what SOOP does for their clients. SOOP offers mining and sustainability expertise services to the extractives sector. You can find out more about her and her company at https://www.soopstrategies.com/

Matt is the co-Founder and CEO at AstroForge, an ambitious company who was partnered with Elon Musk's SpaceX in hopes of mining platinum group metals from a near-earth asteroid. Matt and I discuss this seemingly sci-fi journey into space mining.

Marco is the Head of Geotechnical Department - Line Creek Operation for Teck Resources. Marco is researching the shear strength characteristics of waste rock and rock fill.

Satish Rao is a business advisor and a mining expert helping shape the future of sustainable growth for the industrial economy. Currently, he serves as a managing director at Clareo, a global strategy firm, where he focuses on energy, resources, and materials.
Rao helps businesses transform to meet future decarbonization, ESG, sustainability, and growth objectives. He has advised some of the world’s leading resources, energy, and advanced materials companies such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Baker Hughes, BP, Castrol, GE, Exelon, Owens Corning, Boise Cascade, and Essity.

Michael and I primarily discuss the goals of his company, Circular Mine, which is to reduce/eliminate mine waste primarily by finding viable uses for it. You can find out more about Circular Mine at www.Circular Mine.com

Michael spoke about a project with AMIRA that is looking for sponsors. To be a sponsor you need to be a member of AMIRA. If anyone is interested, you could reach out to Silvia Black at silvia.black@amira.global

Dana is the interim president of the Nevada Mining Association. She is also the past president.

I happened to run into Bill recently in Belo Horizonte. This was a really good episode. Among other things, Bill and I discuss probable maximum precipitation (PMP) estimation, especially in data limited areas.  Bill had an article on this topic in The Journal of Dam Safety, Volume 17, Issue 2 of 2020.  You can find out more about Bill's company at www.AppliedWeatherAssociates.com

In this episode, I am interviewed by the guys at the Mining Minds podcast.  Mining Minds are a group of friends in Northeastern Nevada who all work in the mining industry.  I highly recommend you listen to their podcast.  

I was a guest on Rob Tyson's podcast: DIG DEEPER. Here is what we discussed.

Shawn and I discuss in situ testing

In this episode the tables are turned on me, and I let my journalist son ask me the questions for a change.

Dale is a hydrogeophysist with HydroGeophysics Inc. We talk about challenges and prizes for using geophysics in mining projects. You can find out more about his company at www.hgiworld.com, or contact him directly at dale@hgiworld.com

Heather is with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).  She is the self-professed oil sands "Queen of Clay".  She is working towards her own Vision 2030 - where by 2030 fluid fine tailings in oil sands are no longer a concern as reclamation methods will have been found and implemented to return the tailings pond to a useable boreal ecosystem.

Dawn is the Digital Solutions Manager for Epiroc Digital Solutions Canada 

To schedule a No-cost Digital Roadmap Strategy Session: dawn.larsen@epiroc.com Contact: Dawn Larsen, Epiroc Digital Solutions Canada 1-249-377-9983

Case Studies:

HudBay: Increased mucking rate by 7% Up to 15% increase in productivity 

Fosterville: Expects to cut half the time off evacuations with Epiroc Digital Solutions’ Mobilaris Emergency Support https://www.epiroc.com/en-ca/customer-stories/2020/mobilaris-at-kirkland-lake-gold  

Goldfields: Expect a 12-month ROI on Implementing Digitalization in the Mine https://www.epiroc.com/en-ca/customer-stories/2020/gold-fields-australia-modernization-program 

Anglo Ahsanti Gold: +18 % improvement in productivity -38% reduction in lost time with logistics

Software Solutions Discussed in the Podcast: 

Mobilaris Situational Awareness: https://www.epiroc.com/en-ca/products/digital-solutions/sustainable-and-safe-operations/mobilaris-situational-awareness 

Onboard: https://www.epiroc.com/en-ca/products/digital-solutions/operational-performance/mobilarisonboard  

Pocketmine: https://www.epiroc.com/en-ca/products/digital-solutions/operational-performance/mobilaris-pocketmine 

Emergency Support: https://www.epiroc.com/en-ca/products/digital-solutions/sustainable-and-safe-operations/mobilaris-emergency-support 

Short Term Interval Control, Planning and Scheduling: https://www.epiroc.com/en-ca/products/digital-solutions/planning-and-scheduling/mobilaris-scheduling 

Event Automation: https://www.epiroc.com/en-ca/products/digital-solutions/connected-assets/mobilaris-event-automation 

Enterprise Data Integration Platform: MineRP: https://www.minerp.com/enterprise-interoperability

Nahyan Rana is a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo and a Geoscientist-in-Training at Klohn Crippen Berger, specializing in Engineering Geology and Remote Sensing for Tailings Dams.  He has several publications about tailings.  Amongst other thing, we discuss dam breaches and flow failures.  

Anita is a Partner and Director of Recruiting at the recruiting firm Brooks & Nelson LLC.  She has a pretty amazing career which she shares with us, as well as a passion for a group she supports strongly, Women in Mining.  

In this ode to my father, I hope I can evoke some wonderful memories from your own past.

Karen and Monica have a different way to couple social and technical aspects of tailings management.  They have jointly launched their new Tailings Area of Social Risk (TASR) solution. The method looks to align tailings management with principles of social inclusion and participation, while respecting the scientific process to define the areas of risk.

Lois is a geotechnical engineer working in the mining industry.  Lois and I discuss her ideas on mine closure and much more.  

Pascale is a geotechnical engineer with a PhD from the University of British Columbia.  Pascale worked in academia for several years before joining Itasca.  Amongst other things Pascale and I discuss numerical modeling of tailings facilities.

Gavan is a geotechnical/dams engineer based in Melborn, Australia. He is now working for himself at Hunter Geotechnical.  Hunter and I discuss challenges and rewards of working in the industry.

Jorge is an Assistant Professor Geosystems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.  Amongst other things, Jorge and I discuss the TAILENG program.

Dave is the Vice President, Engineering at EFI Global.  As VP of Engineering, Dave is responsible for the oversight of the engineering service line; product delivery, quality, training and mentoring, business development, and executive team liaison. This role also includes teaching continuing education classes to individuals in the insurance, engineering, and architecture industries on topics such as building construction, structural engineering, and building envelope investigations. 

Dave and I discuss his career and his role in EFI Global as well as the importance of continuing your education throughout your career.   

Timothy D. Stark is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with an expertise in Geotechnical Engineering. Dr. Stark has been conducting interdisciplinary research and teaching on the static and seismic stability of natural and manmade slopes, such as dams, levees, floodwalls, and waste containment facilities, railroad geotechnics, geosynthetics and geomembranes, soil liquefaction during earthquakes, and stabilization and behavior of dredged material containment areas.

In this episode, Tim and I focus our conversation on the Fundao TSF failure and what lessons it has taught us.