CSOs 4 Tailings Justice

We are committed to building democratic community power to address the dangers of mine waste, including tailings facilities.


  • Current realities, threats, resistance and our committment to alternatives for a future beyond extractivism.

    We, the participants of the Thematic Social Forum on Mining and Extractivist Economy, gathered in Semarang, Indonesia from the 16th to the 19th October 2023, to strengthen and build a broad global movement of resistance to mining and extractivism and build mutual solidarity and common solutions to guarantee human rights, the rights of nature and to ensure a just and equitable world for present and future generations.

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  • A tailings dam for mining byproduct storage sits in a quarry at the Northam Platinum Ltd. Booysendal platinum mine outside the town of Lydenburg in Mpumalanga, South Africa, on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. Booysendal will use a system developed by an Austrian company that builds ski lifts to transport the ore up a 30 degree incline out of a valley for processing, instead of the traditional conveyer used throughout South Africa or the more expensive option of trucking. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images

    Merriespruit was South Africa’s worst dam tailings disaster — 17 people were killed and 80 houses destroyed — but such events are rare, according to Mariette Liefferink, the chief executive of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment. But, since 2015, research of all serious failures of tailing storage facilities (TSF) around the world has shown that the rate of failures is rising. There are at least 18 000 of these mine waste disposal facilities globally. They contain the processed waste materials generated from mining metals and minerals in slurry.

    By Sheree Bega, The Green Guardian

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  • BBC News — On 25 January 2019, a dam at an iron ore mine in Brumadinho collapsed. It caused a huge landslide that buried everything in its path. More than 300 people were killed or are still missing. Vale – which owns the mine – is the world’s biggest producer of iron ore. It was the second mining disaster in the region since 2015, when a nearby dam co-owned by Vale also collapsed. Vale says the Brumadinho dam was assessed as safe by inspections over the years. Newsnight’s Gabriel Gatehouse went to Brazil in March, as bodies were still being pulled from the mud. He found a story not just about an industrial accident, but about a system of economic development and a way of life built upon the ever increasing extraction of finite natural resources.

  • A video aired on Brazilian media shows the exact moment a dam burst in Brazil on 25 January. The dam break at an iron ore mining complex operated by the minerals firm Vale killed at least 65 people. A further 279 are missing. Cars can be seen driving around desperately trying to escape as a dramatic gush of mud approaches. The surge buried buildings adjoining the dam and several parts of the nearby city of Brumadinh