UWA PLUS

Risk Evaluation For Tailings Engineering - MINEM531

This micro-credential has been designed for professionals working in the field of tailings management. It is best suited to practicing engineers, geoscientists or individuals with responsibility for input into risk assessments of tailings storage facilities, although the content covered and the principles discussed will find relevance in all fields of mining geomechanics.

Participants will learn about determining what constitutes a safe design, through topics that include the Factor of Safety approach, probabilistic approaches and risk as an acceptable criterion. Topics will include uncertainty and variability, safety risk acceptance levels and the use of safety matrices, and the concepts of ALARP and frequency-consequence evaluations.

This micro-credential is part of a series of 12 micro-credentials which, if successfully completed, will lead to a Graduate Certificate in Tailings Management* at UWA.

Future Tails is a five-year initiative funded by sponsors Rio Tinto and BHP to facilitate industry understanding of best practice mine tailings management.

Upon successful completion of this micro-credential, you'll receive:

  • Two PD Points - stackable for academic credit towards the Graduate Certificate in Tailings Management*
  • A Certificate of Achievement
  • A UWA Plus Professional Development Transcript, listing all successfully completed micro-credentials

* In order to apply for the Graduate Certificate award you must have a Bachelor of Engineering degree or a degree in a related field and have met UWA’s English language competency requirements. Please refer to the Graduate Certificate in Tailings Management.

Delivery mode

Online access to learning material, on demand.

Two online discussion forums will be held for students to discuss the learning material and share their own insights into the topics covered.

Course dates

14 July 2025 - 5 September 2025

Registrations close

18 July 2025

Effort
50 hours (including online learning, personal study time and assessments)
Academic lead
Professor Andy Fourie
Cost
$1,100^ inc. GST
Critical information summary
MINEM531 Risk Evaluation For Tailings Engineering [PDF 41KB]
Keyboard

What you'll learn

You will learn about determining what constitutes a safe design, through topics that include the Factor of Safety approach, probabilistic approaches and risk as an acceptable criterion. Topics will include uncertainty and variability, safety risk acceptance levels and the use of safety matrices, and the concepts of ALARP and frequency-consequence evaluations. 

Participants will be able to:

Compare the factor of safety approach to probability of failure approach

Evaluate the applicability of various risk matrices to tailings storage facilities

Compare various risk acceptance criteria

Demonstrate how to achieve status of ALARP

Keyboard 

Why study this course?

As a result of the recent Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM), there is increasing demand for tailings professionals at the same time as the industry is experiencing a shortage of personnel with appropriate training. The GISTM will bring rapid change to the way the industry manages tailings and waste. This micro-credential and the subsequent micro-credentials will allow you to keep up with standards, technologies and guidelines dealing with tailings management.

Recommended prior knowledge

Best suited to practising engineers, geoscientists, managers or people with significant experience in tailings in an oversight capacity and those wanting to gain knowledge on tailings management strategies.

This micro-credential will require engineering numerical skills.

What's next after this course?

This micro-credential is one of a series of twelve micro-credentials that are stackable towards the Graduate Certificate in Tailings Management*.

The next micro-credential in this series is MINEM532:  Monitoring.  The Calendar of micro-credentials can be found here

*In order to apply for the Graduate Certificate award you must have a Bachelor of Engineering degree or a degree in a related field and have met UWA's English language competency requirements. Please refer to the Graduate Certificate in Tailings Management.

Apply

  • If you are not an employee of BHP or Rio Tinto, please click here to register and pay for this micro-credential
  • If you are an employee of BHP or Rio Tinto and this is your 1st-3rd Tailings Management micro, your fee is covered by your employer. Please click here to register.
  • If you are an employee of BHP or Rio Tinto and this is your 4th-12th Tailings Management micro, please click here to register and pay for this micro-credential