Atelier Analyse De Bris De Digues A Residus Miniers

The Canadian Dam Association invites you to participate in this one-day training course focused on the CDA Bulletin on Tailings Dam Breach Analysis (TDBA).

Designed for dam safety professionals seeking to deepen their understanding of tailings dam failures, as well as for those wishing to better understand the CDA Tailings Dam Breach Analysis bulletin, this course will focus on the issues and challenges specific to tailings dams that are essential to grasp in such studies.

The workshop concentrates on the issues and challenges specific to tailings dams that must be considered in these analyses. The importance of these issues has become more evident following recent catastrophic tailings dam failures. The main topics covered during the workshop include:

Brief overview of the Bulletin and the TDBA process
Terminology
Breach scenarios and failure modes/mechanisms of tailings dams
Geotechnical issues related to tailings for TDBA
Rheological behavior of tailings
Challenges related to breach modeling and estimation of outflow hydrographs and volumes
Selection of TDBA modeling cases
Modeling of breach flow processes (hydraulic modeling)
Geomechanical models and their limitations
Scope and requirements of sensitivity analysis
Mapping and inundation
Common errors and pitfalls
Case studies based on recent failures

Price: Member : $600 | Non-Member: $710
Meals are provided.

Location: Lava Labs, Atkins Realis 455 Boul. René-Lévesque O, Montréal, QC H2Z 1Z3

Mr. Abdellah Mahdi, holder of a Master’s degree in Hydraulic Engineering from Polytechnique Montréal. A hydraulic and hydrology engineer, he has over 9 years of experience in the mining, urban, and environmental sectors.

His area of expertise focuses primarily on multidisciplinary projects in the mining sector, including dam safety studies—particularly tailings facilities—the design of contaminated water management infrastructure, as well as the design of hydraulic structures in permafrost regions. He also contributes to improving water management plans, developing water balances during the design and operational phases, managing ore and tailings production, treating contaminated water, preparing water balances and P&IDs, sizing pumping systems, analyzing resurgences, and performing field inspections and works.

Mr. Mahdi also has extensive experience in hydrodynamic flow modeling (1D, 2D, and 3D), river and watershed hydraulics and hydrology, sediment transport analysis, and assessing the impacts of climate change.

Finally, Mr. Mahdi is an active member of the Canadian Dam Association. He is the author of several publications focused on the development and programming of new technical tools aimed at improving hydrotechnical analyses in the mining sector.

Ms. Adwoa Cobbina is a Senior Water Resources Engineer in the Mine Water division at WSP’s Mississauga office. She has eighteen years of experience and extensive expertise in the analysis and modeling of hydrologic and hydraulic systems, including watersheds, reservoirs, and drainage networks.

Primarily focused on the mining sector, her areas of expertise include mine surface water management and dam breach analysis. Her project experience spans all stages of a mine’s life cycle, from prefeasibility studies to post-closure assessments. Over the course of her career, she has conducted, managed, and reviewed more than 30 dam breach analyses of water dams and tailings dams in North America and internationally.

Adwoa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Bioresource Engineering from McGill University and a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Mr. Carlos Contreras holds a Ph.D. with a specialization in Geotechnical Engineering and has 14 years of experience. His experience includes the design of dams under static and seismic conditions, the design of waste rock dumps, construction supervision, materials quality control, and road pavement. He also has strong experience in laboratory soil characterization.

To date, Mr. Contreras has been involved in the design of tailings facilities, static and dynamic stability analyses of dams, and various related activities.

Mr. Félix-Antoine Desrochers is an engineer specialized in hydrology and hydraulics, holding a master’s degree in these fields. He has 12 years of experience in the design of hydraulic infrastructure and water management systems.

Mr. Desrochers has extensive knowledge of software used for water system modeling (HEC-RAS 1D-2D, FLOW-3D, HEC-HMS, PCSWMM, etc.) as well as several hydrology tools commonly used for statistical analyses (Hyfran, HEC-SSP) and geographic information system processing (Global Mapper, QGIS, ArcGIS, etc.). In his role, he is regularly involved in conducting dam/tailings dam breach studies and dam safety reviews.

Since 2021, he has been working with the Mine Water Management group at AtkinsRéalis, where he has gained solid experience in water management in the mining sector. He has an excellent understanding of the standards and best practices for water management applicable to the mining industry.

Mr. Desrochers is also a member of the Francophone Committee of the Canadian Dam Association (CDA). Since 2021, he has served as the lead for the Mining Dams group within the Francophone Committee and as a liaison with the CDA’s Mining Dam Committee (MDC).

Mr. Gabriel Martin is a mining geotechnical engineer with 13 years of experience in the consulting engineering field. As an engineer and project lead, he has been involved in the design, construction, inspection, and investigation of water retention and tailings dams in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, British Columbia, as well as in Alaska and New Caledonia.

He has led the planning and execution of geotechnical studies focused on the stability assessment of embankment dams, including various drilling and laboratory testing methods, tailored to the site’s geological characteristics. He has contributed to the design and construction of tailings retention dams and to hydraulic structures associated with tailings facilities.

In collaboration with dam owners, Mr. Martin has helped update reference documentation such as management manuals, risk analyses, and emergency action plans. He has also participated in dam safety reviews to evaluate the compliance of structures with corporate standards, including preparing recommendations and monitoring their implementation.

Ms. Marie Tardif-Drolet is a geotechnical engineer holding a master’s degree in mine tailings management, earned through the IRME-UQAT research group. With nine years of experience in mining geotechnics, she has developed a strong interest in understanding failure mechanisms and is actively committed to integrating geotechnical expertise into the breach analyses of the projects she works on.

This passion led her to coordinate the creation of a Francophone workshop on tailings dam breach analysis, based on the reference framework of the Canadian Dam Association (CDA) Bulletin. After seven years dedicated to the design, construction, and management of tailings facilities, Ms. Tardif-Drolet joined the Go-Mine team to further develop her expertise in tailings management governance.

Mr. Zoubir Bouazza is a Senior Hydrology/Hydraulic Engineer, holding a master’s and a doctorate in civil engineering. With over 30 years of experience in water resources management, he has particular expertise in the analysis and numerical modeling of hydraulic systems, including watersheds, rivers, estuaries, lakes, reservoirs, and stormwater networks.

His professional experience spans the design of hydraulic structures, development and implementation of hydrometeorological information systems, development and application of hydrological models, flood risk assessment, erosion and sediment transport analysis, and evaluation of the environmental impacts of climate change. He has extensive knowledge of dam safety issues, water management plans, and emergency action plans. He serves as an expert at Stantec.

WORKSHOP ON THE TAILINGS DAM BREACH ANALYSIS

Workshop on the Tailings Dam Breach Analysis

Speakers