WORKSHOPS
25th International Conference on Paste, Thickened and Filtered Tailings
29 April – 3 May 2023 | Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Alberta, Canada
Tailings Landform Design for Paste, Thickened, and Filtered Tailings
29 April 2023 | Alberta, Canada
The objective of the course is to provide awareness of landform design as applied to tailings landforms and mining landscapes, and to provide practical methods and examples of landform designs for industry professionals, academics, and regulators. The main theme involves setting up conditions for success – assembling the landform design team, working with regulators and local communities, establishing a design basis memorandum, designing to meet the DBM requirements, designing contingency measures should performance differ from design, how to monitor construction and landscape performance, and formally reviewing progress on an ongoing basis.
Course Facilitator
Gord McKenna
Landform Design Institute
Gord McKenna is a geotechnical engineer and geologist who builds mining landforms. He brings 35 years experience in mine operations and international consulting for metal, oil sands, coal, potash, and diamond mines. McKenna Geotechnical provides independent geotechnical review, design, and advice to mines, regulators, and communities. Gord sits on ten geotechnical review boards, is an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta, and chairs the Landform Design Institute. Gord is a builder. He and his teams have designed and built 26 reclaimed watersheds that cover 54 square kilometers and host 38 wetlands and 119 kilometers of streams. He has co-authored 100 technical papers and book chapters and led 40 landform design courses.
Gord’s specialties include mining geotechnique, tailings dams, soft tailings capping, and landform design. He has a BASc in Geological Engineering from the University of British Columbia and a PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Alberta.