Alistair White is a Civil Engineer with a Master’s degree in Engineering for Sustainable Development, based in the London office of Knight Piésold. His early career was predominantly site‑based within mining operations, providing him with practical experience before transitioning into consulting. He now works within the design team, with a particular interest in early‑stage conceptual design and collaboration with operations and development teams. His work focuses on building multidisciplinary teams to address the modern challenges associated with the design and construction of tailings dams
Resilience-Based Design in Tailings Engineering
This talk traces the evolution from performance‑based to resilience‑based approaches in tailings engineering, and then pushes the conversation further by expanding the system boundary from the dam to the entire mining‑environment system. Case studies are used to illustrate practical measures that have been taken to “shrink the resilience triangle” for tailings dams - reducing the depth of performance loss and shortening recovery. The session concludes by examining design and governance strategies that can limit the depth and duration of environmental degradation, accelerate recovery, and explore the possibility of achieving a post‑closure state that matches or exceeds the pre‑mining baseline.
