ANCOLD 2022 Tailings Dam Operators Forum Wrap Up

The ANCOLD Tailings Dam Operators Forum was successfully held in Orange, NSW from the 24th-26th August 2022. The participants where welcomed to Orange with a good dump of snow on Mt Canoblas.

After the success of the inaugural event in Gladstone in 2021, consensus was that running it again in 2022 would be very well attended, and as expected the Forum was filled to capacity with a record number of 153 delegates including 120 participants in the the Certificate III training program. Participants travelled from far afield including operators from Broken Hill, Cobar, the Pilbara , NQLD and even PNG, Japan, Mongolia and Canada.

The forum included optional training to gain formal accredited training – Certificate III – Inspect and Report on Embankment Dam Safety. David Brett (GHD) delivered this training over one additional day of lecture based training prior to the forum, followed by practical field based training during the forum’s site visit to Cadia Valley Operations.

The event dinner was a memorable event at Borrodel Vineyard and included music and a hard to forget ‘dam operators fashion parade’ facilitated by comedian Tahir.

Feedback from the forum has been overwhelmingly positive from attendees, sponsors and the mining companies’ representatives.  The success of this forum in providing relevant training/learning and networking opportunities will ensure future forums are an important event for all dam operators.