Lunch and Learn
The Landform Design Institute is pleased to have started making public the lectures from its quarterly “Lunch and Learn” sessions. The first five are below. The lectures are presented live for corporate members by LDI founder and chair Gord McKenna. Our corporate members have found these lectures to be a valued resource, and once a lecture is a year old, the Institute found it beneficial to distribute them to all. Each lecture includes a question period, as well as discussion. For our corporate members, it is a great opportunity to share industry practice and trends as well as to connect with fellow practitioners. If you or your organization are interested in supporting LDI and becoming a corporate member please contact us at admin@landformdesign.com.
The first Lunch and Learn introduces the basics of safe closure for tailing facilities, starting with the broad outlines recently developed in the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management by the International Council on Mining & Metals, and filling in the details, definitions, and industry experiences from the past 25 years.
The second session is devoted to the best practices involved in preparing and writing a design basis memorandum. It revolves around the question of what routine use of DBMs would mean for the industry, why they’re important, and what they look like. The discussion draws on feedback from participants in the first session to explore some of the fundamental concepts.
The third session is devoted to the concept of Technical Readiness Levels, which was devised by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a governing principle for the development of space technology, but can be readily applied to landform design.
The fourth session deals the design of mining landform slopes, primary mine rock stockpiles and tailings dams, erosion, water transport, controlling seepage and groundwater and how all these elements fit into the challenge of responsible reclamation.
The final session of the series address the aesthetics of landform design — why they’re important, how to include them in reclamation plans, pitfalls to avoid, and how to maximize your chances of meeting your promises.