Tailings Dam Monitoring
We provide tailings dam monitoring with satellite InSAR: embankment, foundation, and ground movement at tailings storage facilities (TSFs), measured across a whole portfolio of facilities. Our work gives operators, engineers of record, and regulators a repeated, site-wide record of how a facility and the ground around it are moving, from the earliest images in the satellite archive to today.
Where InSAR Adds Value
| Facility element | What InSAR detects |
|---|---|
| Retaining embankment | Crest and downstream slope settlement and outward movement |
| Foundation and abutments | Differential settlement and shear-zone creep |
| Impoundment and beaches | Consolidation settlement of dry or capped tailings |
| Closed and legacy facilities | Long-term movement where no instruments exist |
Embankment and Foundation Deformation Surveillance
Tailings embankments are raised over years and rest on foundations that consolidate, creep, or weaken as the load grows. Movement of the crest, the downstream face, or the toe often develops slowly and long before any visible sign. Satellite InSAR provides measurements along the embankment and the surrounding ground, where radar geometry and surface conditions permit, without placing instruments on the structure, and returns a dense field of measurement points where inclinometers and survey prisms give only a handful. The radar archive reaches back several years, so we can reconstruct how an embankment behaved before monitoring began and separate long-standing consolidation from a new trend.
Rapid failures can develop faster than any satellite revisit. For that final warning, on-site instruments remain essential. InSAR provides the wide-area context and the long-term trend that help an engineer of record identify where closer investigation is warranted.
Portfolio Surveillance and GISTM Alignment
The Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management emphasizes ongoing monitoring and surveillance of every facility, including inactive and closed ones, as part of a comprehensive, integrated monitoring program. Ground instruments cover the facilities that already have them. Where suitable radar observations are available, satellite InSAR can extend that surveillance across a company's whole portfolio, from one processing chain and with the same measurement definitions, so a corporate dam safety team can compare sites, rank them, and document that each one is under observation. Because the data are independent of the operator, the record also provides an independent source of evidence for reviewers and regulators.
Closed and Legacy Facilities
Many facilities that pose the highest long-term risk have no instrumentation at all. Satellite InSAR can provide a practical means of screening and monitoring such facilities without installing instrumentation on site. The historical archive lets us establish whether measurable deformation has occurred at a closed facility over the past several years or whether slow movement is under way, and a monitoring program then keeps it under observation at low cost for as long as the liability lasts. The same approach applies to facilities acquired through mergers, where the instrument history is incomplete or lost.
What a Tailings Dam Monitoring Program Delivers
A tailings program delivers a velocity map of the embankment, impoundment, foundation, and surrounding ground; a displacement time series for every measurement point, so movement can be read at an individual embankment section or abutment; vertical and east-west components where suitable viewing geometries and assumptions allow; and an interpretive report written for dam safety reviews, engineers of record, and regulators. We select the radar band to fit the site: C-band from Sentinel-1 for wide-area coverage at frequent revisit, X-band from TerraSAR-X or COSMO-SkyMed for fine detail on a single structure, and L-band from ALOS-2 where vegetation around the facility would otherwise degrade the signal. Results are provided as GIS layers, updated as new satellite acquisitions arrive, and can feed a trigger action response plan through defined movement thresholds.
Why Satellite InSAR for Tailings Dams
Satellite InSAR needs no access to the structure, can cover a whole portfolio of facilities at once, and draws on a multi-year archive that no newly installed instrument can match. Wet, actively deposited beaches can defeat the radar signal, so we treat InSAR as a complement to piezometers and on-site instrumentation rather than a replacement. Our small-baseline processing can improve measurement coverage over vegetated and partially reclaimed ground where persistent-scatterer methods lose coverage, and every rate is reported with its own error estimate. Our methods are grounded in peer-reviewed research published in international remote-sensing journals. GNSS integration, independent validation of results from another provider, and second-opinion reviews are available. Tailings surveillance is one of our monitoring services and also part of our mining monitoring service.
Frequently Asked Questions
What movement can InSAR detect on a tailings dam?
Slow settlement and outward movement of the embankment crest and downstream face, differential settlement of the foundation and abutments, and consolidation of the impoundment, mapped across broad areas of the facility rather than only at a few instrument locations.
Does satellite monitoring satisfy GISTM surveillance requirements?
Not on its own. The standard expects a comprehensive, integrated monitoring program; satellite InSAR can contribute an independent, repeated deformation record across a portfolio of facilities, alongside the on-site instrumentation the standard also expects.
Can InSAR monitor a wet, active tailings beach?
Not reliably. Water and freshly deposited slurry scatter the radar signal unpredictably. The embankment, foundation, abutments, and dry or capped areas are measured well; on-site instruments cover the active beach.
Can you monitor a facility that was closed years ago?
Yes. The satellite archive lets us reconstruct several years of past movement even where no instruments were ever installed, and then keep the facility under observation for as long as needed.
How quickly is movement reported?
Results are updated as new satellite acquisitions become available. Observation frequency depends on satellite coverage, orbit, acquisition plan, and data availability, and multiple viewing geometries or constellations can increase the effective observation frequency. This suits the slow, developing movement InSAR tracks; imminent-failure warning remains the role of appropriate on-site instrumentation.
What are the main tailings dam monitoring methods, and where does satellite InSAR fit?
Piezometers, inclinometers, survey prisms, ground-based radar, and inspections measure specific points on an instrumented facility. Satellite InSAR adds whole-facility surface movement, a record that reaches back years before instruments existed, and the same method for every facility in a portfolio. It complements the instruments an engineer of record already relies on.
Can one program monitor every tailings facility in a portfolio?
Yes. Satellite coverage is not limited to instrumented sites, so all facilities of an operator, including closed and legacy ones, can be monitored with the same method where radar observations are suitable, the same reporting format, and the same review cycle.
Discuss your project: Send us the location or coordinates of your site and tell us what you need to understand. We can review the available satellite data, determine how far the archive extends, and discuss what an InSAR monitoring program could provide. Contact us.