Chapter 5
What the Public Wants; Public Reactions
This chapter analyzes public reactions and “what the public wants”, around the world,
especially from the point of view of potential victims of failures.
In this chapter we attempt to define what a risk assessment should include using
the results of a recent conference, Public Hearing in the NWT related to the environmental rehabilitation of the Giant Mine, as well as other information from the
world.
5.1 Lessons Learned from Recent Conferences
The topics in this text are presented to provide a broader context for certain subjects
discussed later on. The reader may or may not agree with what is stated but will, at
least, better understand the basis of related statements or comments.
5.1.1 CIM 2015 Workshop
The State of Practice for Tailings Management Workshop at CIM 2015 Montreal discussed the Mount Polley Failure. This section summarizes part of the conversations
and presentations which took place, as we interpret them. The workshop started with
a Panel, Ministry, Legal, CIM and CAD positions’ review.
As described earlier (Sect. 2.1), the Panel was given the mandate to define a path
to zero failures, obviously a “political statement” more than a technical one, as it is
well understood across all industries that “zero” is an unattainable objective. Thus,
given the “unalterable wording” of the mandate the Panel had to carefully formulate
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
F. Oboni and C. Oboni, Tailings Dam Management for the Twenty-First Century,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19447-5_5
53
What the Public Wants; Public Reactions
This chapter analyzes public reactions and “what the public wants”, around the world,
especially from the point of view of potential victims of failures.
In this chapter we attempt to define what a risk assessment should include using
the results of a recent conference, Public Hearing in the NWT related to the environmental rehabilitation of the Giant Mine, as well as other information from the
world.
5.1 Lessons Learned from Recent Conferences
The topics in this text are presented to provide a broader context for certain subjects
discussed later on. The reader may or may not agree with what is stated but will, at
least, better understand the basis of related statements or comments.
5.1.1 CIM 2015 Workshop
The State of Practice for Tailings Management Workshop at CIM 2015 Montreal discussed the Mount Polley Failure. This section summarizes part of the conversations
and presentations which took place, as we interpret them. The workshop started with
a Panel, Ministry, Legal, CIM and CAD positions’ review.
As described earlier (Sect. 2.1), the Panel was given the mandate to define a path
to zero failures, obviously a “political statement” more than a technical one, as it is
well understood across all industries that “zero” is an unattainable objective. Thus,
given the “unalterable wording” of the mandate the Panel had to carefully formulate
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
F. Oboni and C. Oboni, Tailings Dam Management for the Twenty-First Century,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19447-5_5
53