Technical Director
SLR Consulting
Sam brings over 23 years of experience in tailings and mine waste engineering, dam engineering, and geotechnical engineering. He has worked on a wide range of mining, dam, and major infrastructure projects worldwide.
He is a Chartered Civil Engineer and serves on the technical committee of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.
Sam currently represents the UK as a Co-opted Member on the ICOLD Committee on Tailings Dams, appointed by the British Dams Society (BDS). He is also a member of the BDS Committee.
His academic background includes a master’s degree in Geotechnical Engineering (2007), a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering (2002), and a qualification in Commerce and Management (2017).
Sam has authored several technical papers in areas such as risk assessment, unsaturated and problematic soils, foundation engineering, landslides, embankment and tailings dams, and reinforced soils.
Key Areas of Focus:
• Project and technical leadership (tailings and water dams)
• Safety reviews, failure mode analysis, and risk assessment
• Numerical modelling and performance monitoring
• Geotechnical investigations and lab/in-situ testing
• Design and assessment of geotechnical structures
• Construction support and site engineering
Transforming Liability into Strategy - How a Risk-Based Approach to Tailings Dam Safety Helps Mine Owners Protect Assets, Reputation, Societies, and the Environment, More Efficiently
The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate, through a case study, how a risk-based approach to dam safety reviews can help dam owners prioritise upgrade options.
Risk-based assessment is a powerful tool for evaluating dam safety by focusing on credible failure scenarios. This approach helps identify and prioritise risks, define required actions, and implement effective and cost-efficient mitigation measures. A key advantage of this method over traditional standards-based assessments is its ability to prioritise mitigation options based on the risks associated with different failure modes.
This paper presents a risk-based safety assessment carried out for an existing Tailings Storage Facility (TSF). The objective of the study was to ensure that risks to society remain within tolerable levels and to identify practicable risk mitigation measures.
The estimated risks associated with all load cases and potential failure modes were quantified and presented using F-N plots, which illustrate the level of societal risk.
Although the TSF’s overall risk profile was found to fall within the tolerable risk range, a number of efficient risk mitigation options were evaluated. These could further reduce the risk; however, due to the marginal initial risk level, it was concluded that the project currently satisfies the ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable) principle at this stage of construction.