And yet another mining dam failure......

[miningman]

I doubt that this will get as much attention as recent failures in Brazil, but it proves that this is an issue that has has no national boundaries

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50108413

 

[GeoEnvGuy]

From the link it states the dam failed after heavy rainfall and that this was used as a hydro electric dam.

I would assume that the dam overtopped or was at a higher than normal water elevation. This probably could have been avoided by lowering the reservoir level prior to the rain event.

 

[msquared48]

And I wonder if any local deforestation contributed to it too.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

there won't have been any way of controlling the level.

This will be a beaver dam across the river with absolutely zero civil engineering involved.

Its a river bed gold mine.

They will have done the dam with a mine suction hose/pipe under it which will have been fed into a pump converted to a generator.

I have seen a couple of these setups, there is water seeping everywhere. No escape route if it over fills apart from over the unprotected top. Its just a huge lump of local materials blocking a water flow with a pipe though it.