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Tailings storage facilitiesTailings facilities, watched for as long as they stand.
A tailings facility holds the finely ground waste of processing behind embankments that must stay stable through operation, closure and long after. The Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management asks operators to run monitoring tied to the facility’s design, with trigger levels and named responsibilities. The observation network provides that record: pore pressure, deformation, water and seepage, continuously and with evidence.
Plan a deploymentHow it worksStation Builder- Industry
- Mining
- Measurements
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- Sources cited
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Mining · Tailings storage facilities
A structure that outlives the mine
A tailings facility grows with every year of production and must remain stable long after the mine closes. Since the global tailings standard, operators are expected to know their facilities in detail, name an engineer of record and run monitoring tied to the design. Observation is how that knowledge stays current, day after day.
What is measured
Water inside, movement outside
Piezometers read pore pressure and the phreatic surface at instrumented sections; inclinometers, prisms and GNSS follow deformation, and satellite radar adds the whole facility between them. Pond level, freeboard, seepage flow, rainfall and ground motion complete the picture the engineer of record needs.
- Instruments
- Piezometers · Inclinometers · GNSS · Satellite radar · Pond and seepage · Strong motion
The base node
Endpoints that read the old and the new
Battery endpoints read vibrating-wire piezometers and inclinometers, including sound instruments already in the ground, and send each value with its instrument’s identity. Solar crest nodes read GNSS and strong-motion sensors, sign every value and keep it locally until the governed record confirms delivery.
Radio and links
Gateways on the crest, links to the mine
LoRaWAN gateways on the crest or nearby hills hear endpoints across the facility. Microwave links join them and the GNSS stations to the mine network, the site’s private network carries cameras, and satellite backhaul keeps closed or remote facilities reporting for as long as needed.
- Radio
- LoRaWAN · Microwave · Satellite · Private LTE
How it works
From a piezometer to a trigger response
A piezometer’s frequency is read by its endpoint, converted with the instrument’s calibration, sent over LoRaWAN to the crest gateway and signed by the edge node. The node compares it with the trigger levels of its section; a crossed level starts the response plan and notifies the named people with the data attached.
From order to operation · Order
Start from the knowledge base
The scope starts from the facility’s knowledge base, design and failure modes, and from the trigger levels and responsibilities the engineer of record defines. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns an instrumentation and telemetry plan per section, the data and alarm workflow, the reporting for independent review and a price per facility.
Plan a deploymentFrom order to operation · Survey
Survey crest, toe and abutments
The crew walks the crest, toe, abutments and seepage collection with the operator’s tailings engineer. It confirms instrumented sections, checks existing instruments and their cables, measures radio coverage, finds gateway and GNSS positions with clear sky and records every position against the facility’s survey control.
From order to operation · Permits
Work within the facility’s governance
Work on a tailings facility follows its operation, maintenance and surveillance manual and the operator’s access and ground disturbance rules. New boreholes and instruments are approved by the engineer of record, and the monitoring plan feeds the reports regulators and independent reviewers expect.
From order to operation · Build
Build for decades outdoors
Crest and toe stations, endpoints for vibrating-wire instruments, GNSS stations, gateways and the edge node are built for long service outdoors, configured and tested. Each is enrolled with its identity and the instrument it reads, so readings are never confused between sections.
Open the Station BuilderFrom order to operation · Install
Install section by section
Gateways and backhaul go in first, then piezometers and inclinometers in their boreholes, GNSS monuments on the crest, pond and seepage stations and the weather and strong-motion stations. Existing instruments are connected to new endpoints where they are sound, and each position is surveyed and photographed.
From order to operation · Commission
Commission readings and triggers
Each node proves its identity, then readings are compared with manual readings and survey control. Trigger levels from the engineer of record are entered, reviewed and tested end to end, from instrument to the people named in the response plan, and the results are signed into the record.
From order to operation · Operate
Surveillance with the evidence in hand
The console shows every section, the pond, seepage and deformation, with trends against trigger levels. A crossed level starts the response the plan defines, with the data attached, and every acknowledgement and decision is logged for the engineer of record and the independent reviewer.
From order to operation · Maintain
Raise, close and keep watching
Instruments are added as the embankment is raised, replaced when they fail and recalibrated on schedule. At closure the network is simplified to what the closure plan needs and kept running for as long as monitoring is required, with the same record and the same evidence.
Book field servicesData products
Records for every role the standard names
The engineer of record sees sections, trends and triggers; operators manage the pond and water balance; the accountable executive sees trigger events and responses; independent reviewers and regulators receive surveillance reports; communities can see what the operator discloses. Each comes from the same signed readings.
See the data productsEvidence
Evidence aligned with the global standard
Instrument installation records, calibrations, trigger levels and every change to them, every trigger event and every decision are signed and kept. The monitoring programme follows the global tailings standard and recognised dam safety guidance, so reviewers can trace the facility’s performance from the first reading.
- Drawn against
- Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management · ANCOLD · CDA mining dams bulletin
What you get
Structural and ground-movement monitoring
GNSS, InSAR, tilt, strain and fibre sensing on bridges, dams, slopes, tailings and pipelines, with alert thresholds set by the owner. Delivered as managed service and data licence, for infrastructure, mining and pipeline operators, transport agencies. Scale: Asset portfolios. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure on your own dashboard.
Talk to salesNext step
Plan tailings storage facilities with us
Tell us the site, the measurements and the rules it answers to. We reply with a survey proposal, a design and a scope for tailings storage facilities. An engineer replies with a survey proposal and a scope, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need, at your pace.
Plan a deploymentOpen the Station BuilderOpen the Studio
01The place and its hazards
Where it runs, and what can go wrong.
Operating contextTailings are pumped as a slurry into a facility retained by embankments raised over the life of the mine, by upstream, centreline or downstream methods. Failures have been catastrophic, which is why the global standard asks for a knowledge base, an engineer of record, independent review and a performance monitoring programme. Monitoring must continue after closure, often far beyond the life of the mine.
Hazards
- Embankment instability, including liquefaction of loose tailings
- Rising pore pressure and phreatic surface in the embankment
- Overtopping in extreme rainfall or snowmelt
- Internal erosion and seepage
- Foundation movement and earthquake loading
- Dust from dry beaches and seepage to groundwater
02What must be measured
What, where, how often, and under which rules.
Each measurement names where it is taken, how often, and the public standard or regulation behind it. Numbers in the sources column open the cited source below.
| Measurement | Where | Cadence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pore pressure and phreatic surface | Piezometers at instrumented sections through the embankment and foundation | Continuous | 123 |
| Embankment deformation | GNSS points, prisms, in-place inclinometers and satellite radar interferometry | Continuous at stations; each satellite pass for interferometry | 14 |
| Pond level, freeboard and beach width | Decant pond and crest | Continuous | 12 |
| Seepage flow and quality | Toe drains, seepage collection and downstream wells | Continuous flow; quality sampled and logged | 15 |
| Rainfall and climate | On the facility, sited to recognised practice | Continuous | 6 |
| Ground motion | Strong-motion stations on the crest and the foundation | Continuous, recorded on trigger | 23 |
03The observation stack
From one base unit to a network.
The same blocks at every scale: instruments and a base node, a site with its radio, a fleet run as one, and a network federated on the open protocol.
- 01
Base unit
A crest station: GNSS, an inclinometer string or a cluster of piezometers read by a battery endpoint or a solar node that signs and keeps every value.
Build a station → - 02
Site
One facility: instrumented sections, pond and seepage stations, a weather station, strong-motion sensors and gateways on the crest, joined to the mine network.
Plan a site → - 03
Fleet
Every facility of an operator, active and closed, run as one fleet with trigger levels per facility and one evidence trail.
Managed offers → - 04
Network
Operators, engineers of record, independent reviewers and regulators read one federated record, each with the access their role gives them.
The open protocol →
- 01GNSS geodetic station
- 02Water level gauge
- 03Flow meter
- 04Seismometer / strong-motion accelerometer
- 05LPWAN endpoint
- 06LoRaWAN gateway
- 07Edge node (Wedge)
- 08Point-to-point microwave
- 09Solar array
- 10Pole
Radio and links
LoRaWAN
Piezometers and seepage weirs spread across a large facility report from battery endpoints through gateways on the crest or nearby high ground.
Radio and links
Point-to-point microwave
Links the facility’s gateways and GNSS stations to the mine network across distances where trenching fibre is impractical.
Radio and links
Satellite
Remote or closed facilities without staff on site keep their record flowing over satellite backhaul for as long as monitoring is required.
Radio and links
Private LTE
On an operating mine, the site’s private network carries crest cameras and higher-rate data.
Edge computeAn edge node at the mine evaluates every reading against the trigger levels set by the engineer of record, raises the response the plan defines and keeps the facility’s complete record locally as well as in the governed store.
PowerCrest and toe stations run on solar and batteries sized for the worst season of the site, so the record continues through storms and power outages, when it matters most.
04How it works
From the instrument to the product.
One observation’s path, tier by tier, with the interface on every link and a bill of materials below; then how the one node grows to a site, a fleet and federated networks.
Tailings storage facilities: data path
– of 08
01 Instruments Measurement with sensor identity andcalibration 02 Field radio 03 Gateway 04 Node – Wrap in an observation envelope with timequality– Measure quality and uncertainty, attachquality flags– Buffer locally (store-and-forward when thelink drops) 05 Backhaul Commit with transactional outbox andpublish, delivered at least once 06 Site Consumer inbox deduplicates and applieseach record once into governed data 07 Data store Governed product through API, map orexport, correction-aware 08 Products OGC SensorThings APIOPC UA (IEC 62541)LoRaWAN 09 Power and structure Supplies 12 V DC, 24 V DC, 48 V DC to thefield equipment Vibrating-wire piezometersand inclinometers Not in the reference kit 01 Water level gauge SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 02 Flow meter SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 03 GNSS geodetic station Ethernet · GNSS antenna ·1PPS/10 MHz 04 Seismometer /strong-motionaccelerometer SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 05 LPWAN endpoint Analogue I/O · SDI-12 · RS-485 06 LoRaWAN gateway Ethernet · RF · GNSS antenna 07 Edge node (Wedge) Ethernet · Fibre · USB · RS-485 ·BMC 08 Point-to-point microwave Ethernet · Fibre Site MQTT 5 with Sparkplug B Governed data store Versioned, correction-aware Pore pressure and phreaticsurface by section Deformation maps fromstations and satellite radar Pond, freeboard and waterbalance Trigger events and responses Surveillance reports forreview and disclosure 09 Solar array RS-485 10 Pole Analogue I/O SDI-12 SDI-12 LoRaWAN Ethernet Ethernet Ethernet Ethernet Microwave link| Item | Equipment | Data ports | Protocols | Power in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Water level gaugeRadar, pressure or float gauge for river, lake, reservoir or tide level. | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SDI-12, Modbus, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 02 | Flow meterOpen-channel or pipe flow meter (Doppler, ultrasonic, electromagnetic). | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SDI-12, Modbus, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 03 | GNSS geodetic stationContinuously operating GNSS station on a stable monument for geodesy, deformation and atmospheric water vapour. | EthernetGNSS antenna1PPS/10 MHz | NTP with NTS | 12 V DC |
| 04 | Seismometer / strong-motion accelerometerShort-period seismometer or strong-motion accelerometer for local earthquake and structural shaking. | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SEED / miniSEED streams, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 05 | LPWAN endpointBattery-powered endpoint on LoRaWAN, NB-IoT or LTE-M that carries one or more sensors. | Analogue I/OSDI-12RS-485 | LoRaWAN, OMA LwM2M, CoAP | Internal battery, Energy harvesting |
| 06 | LoRaWAN gatewayMulti-channel LoRaWAN gateway that forwards uplinks to a network server and schedules downlinks within duty limits. | EthernetRFGNSS antenna | LoRaWAN, MQTT 5 | PoE, 12 V DC |
| 07 | Edge node (Wedge)Rugged edge node that boots from signed media, attests itself and establishes a site cell from little or no infrastructure. | EthernetFibreUSBRS-485BMC | MQTT 5, DMTF Redfish, IEEE 1588 PTP, NTP with NTS, OPC UA | 12 V DC, 24 V DC, 48 V DC, AC mains |
| 08 | Point-to-point microwaveLicensed or licence-exempt point-to-point radio link between two sites with line-of-sight. | EthernetFibre | IEEE 1588 PTP | PoE, 48 V DC |
| 09 | Solar arrayPV modules with charge controller sized to the site’s load and climate. | RS-485 | Modbus | — |
| 10 | PoleUtility, street or dedicated pole with clamp positions. | — | — | — |
How it scales
01 Instruments Arbitrary qualified sensors and instruments whosemeasurements are ingested with calibration, units,geometry, time, custody and uncertainty. ×n 02 Node The minimum useful deployable unit: server, ruggedappliance, radio node, sensor gateway, satelliteterminal, AI, scientific, vehicle or virtual node. Node Node agent 03 Site The minimum independently operable localgovernance and failure domain: one or more nodesplus local network, identity, policy, evidence,storage, products and operator surfaces.SITE
Node Node Node ×n 04 Cluster An optional scale or specialisation domain forscheduling, shared storage, accelerators or datalocality.CLUSTER
×n 05 Fleet Coordinates plans, acknowledgements,convergence evidence, update campaigns andcorrection propagation across nodes and sites.FLEET
Fleet controller ×n 06 Federation An exchange of products, capabilities, events orwork across approved, independently administeredtrust domains, using explicit trust, policy,data-locality, version and correction contracts.TRUST DOMAIN
TRUST DOMAIN
TRUST DOMAIN
×n Verifier Applications Data in the field Telemetry Control Data upstream Control Data upstream Control Exchange Evidence Events Exchange- Data in the field
- MQTT 5 with Sparkplug B; connectors for LoRaWAN, OPC UA and instrument buses.
- Telemetry
- OpenTelemetry OTLP.
- Control
- TLS 1.3 with mutual authentication; protobuf messages over gRPC or HTTP/2.
- Data upstream
- At-least-once publication with repeat-safe keys over the control channel or NATS JetStream; QUIC MAY be used on lossy links.
- Evidence
- DSSE-signed in-toto statements; SLSA provenance; SCITT transparency receipts.
- Events
- Event envelopes mapped to CloudEvents 1.0; channels described in AsyncAPI 3.
- Exchange
- OpenAPI 3.1; the OGC API family; SensorThings; STAC; WIS 2.0.
05From order to operation
Every step, from the first call to a running site.
The same crew and the same record carry the work from scope to maintenance.
- 01 Order
Start from the knowledge base
The scope starts from the facility’s knowledge base, design and failure modes, and from the trigger levels and responsibilities the engineer of record defines. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns an instrumentation and telemetry plan per section, the data and alarm workflow, the reporting for independent review and a price per facility. 1
- 02 Survey
Survey crest, toe and abutments
The crew walks the crest, toe, abutments and seepage collection with the operator’s tailings engineer. It confirms instrumented sections, checks existing instruments and their cables, measures radio coverage, finds gateway and GNSS positions with clear sky and records every position against the facility’s survey control.
- 03 Permits
Work within the facility’s governance
Work on a tailings facility follows its operation, maintenance and surveillance manual and the operator’s access and ground disturbance rules. New boreholes and instruments are approved by the engineer of record, and the monitoring plan feeds the reports regulators and independent reviewers expect. 13
- 04 Build
Build for decades outdoors
Crest and toe stations, endpoints for vibrating-wire instruments, GNSS stations, gateways and the edge node are built for long service outdoors, configured and tested. Each is enrolled with its identity and the instrument it reads, so readings are never confused between sections.
- 05 Install
Install section by section
Gateways and backhaul go in first, then piezometers and inclinometers in their boreholes, GNSS monuments on the crest, pond and seepage stations and the weather and strong-motion stations. Existing instruments are connected to new endpoints where they are sound, and each position is surveyed and photographed.
- 06 Commission
Commission readings and triggers
Each node proves its identity, then readings are compared with manual readings and survey control. Trigger levels from the engineer of record are entered, reviewed and tested end to end, from instrument to the people named in the response plan, and the results are signed into the record.
- 07 Operate
Surveillance with the evidence in hand
The console shows every section, the pond, seepage and deformation, with trends against trigger levels. A crossed level starts the response the plan defines, with the data attached, and every acknowledgement and decision is logged for the engineer of record and the independent reviewer.
- 08 Maintain
Raise, close and keep watching
Instruments are added as the embankment is raised, replaced when they fail and recalibrated on schedule. At closure the network is simplified to what the closure plan needs and kept running for as long as monitoring is required, with the same record and the same evidence.
06Data products and integration
What it delivers, to whom, and into which systems.
Data products
- Pore pressure and phreatic surface by sectionEngineer of record and tailings engineers
- Deformation maps from stations and satellite radarEngineers of record and independent reviewers
- Pond, freeboard and water balanceOperators and water managers
- Trigger events and responsesAccountable executive, operators and emergency planners
- Surveillance reports for review and disclosureIndependent reviewers, regulators, communities
Integration
- Geotechnical data managementReadings and manual observations are delivered to the operator’s geotechnical database with their quality flags.
- Mine SCADA and historianPond, pump and seepage data move over OPC UA to the plant historian.
- Emergency preparednessTrigger events feed the facility’s emergency preparedness and response plan and its notification lists.
- Public disclosureAgreed summaries support the disclosure the global standard expects.
Exchanged through OGC SensorThings API, OPC UA (IEC 62541), LoRaWAN.
07Questions buyers ask
Before you scope it.
Who sets the trigger levels?
The engineer of record. The system holds the levels, tests them end to end and records every change to them.
Can you connect our existing piezometers and inclinometers?
Usually yes. Vibrating-wire and digital instruments are read by new endpoints where the instrument and its cable are sound.
Does satellite radar replace ground instruments?
No. Satellite radar interferometry adds wide-area deformation between ground stations; ground instruments remain the reference for each section.
What happens after closure?
The network is simplified to what the closure plan needs and keeps reporting, with the same record, for as long as monitoring is required.
08Resources
The sources behind this page.
Public standards, regulations and guidance, cited where they apply. Each applies only where its jurisdiction or scope does.
- 1Global Industry Standard on Tailings ManagementICMM, UNEP and PRI · 2020
- 2Guidelines on Tailings Dams: Planning, Design, Construction, Operation and ClosureAustralian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD)
- 3Technical Bulletin: Application of Dam Safety Guidelines to Mining DamsCanadian Dam Association · 2019
- 4Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar missionEuropean Space Agency
- 5Directive 2006/21/EC on the management of waste from extractive industriesEuropean Union · 2006
- 6Guide to Instruments and Methods of Observation (WMO-No. 8)World Meteorological Organization
09Related
Use cases and solutions.
SolutionStructural and ground-movement monitoring
GNSS, InSAR, tilt, strain and fibre sensing on bridges, dams, slopes, tailings and pipelines, with alert thresholds set by the owner.Solutions for mining →SolutionEarth observation tasking, processing and change detection
SAR and optical acquisition planning, analysis-ready processing and change detection checked against field truth, delivered as STAC and COG.Solutions for mining →SolutionEnvironmental and permit monitoring
Emissions, water quality, noise and dust monitoring for permit conditions, with traceable calibration and evidence bundles.Solutions for mining →10Mining: specialized fields
Other fields of this industry.
Specialized fieldOpen-pit mining
Slope radar, prisms and GNSS on the pit walls, private LTE or 5G for dispatch and autonomy, blast vibration and dust at the fence, on one site network.The full field →Specialized fieldUnderground hard-rock mining
Microseismic arrays, ventilation on demand, gas and refuge monitoring, people and vehicle tracking, and a private LTE or leaky-feeder backbone that follows the headings.The full field →Specialized fieldUnderground coal mining
Methane, airflow and carbon monoxide under explosion-protection rules, dust exposure, communication and tracking that survive an emergency, and methane drainage measured for safety and emissions.The full field →Specialized fieldPlacer and alluvial mining
Turbidity and sediment downstream, mercury where amalgamation is used, settling pond stability and rehabilitation, with LoRaWAN and satellite links where nothing else reaches.The full field →Specialized fieldIn-situ recovery
Wellfields that dissolve ore underground, watched through monitoring-well rings, wellhead flow and pressure, groundwater chemistry and leak detection, with every excursion caught and reported.The full field →Specialized fieldQuarrying and aggregates
Blast vibration and air overpressure at the neighbours, boundary dust, noise, discharge water and face stability, on simple, low-cost links for a site that sits next to a town.The full field →Specialized fieldSeabed and marine minerals
Environmental baselines and plume monitoring for nearshore dredging and seabed mineral exploration: moored and seabed instruments, ocean-ready links and data that regulators and scientists can verify.The full field →Bring us the site.
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