NEWS 2010

Posted December 15, 2009 (updated February 1, 2010)

Event: January 27, 2010

Mr. Iain Bruce, President, BGC Engineering Inc. - Karst, and its Influence on Tailings Dams I Have Known and Loved

Location: Royal Glenora Club (11160 River Valley Road)

Time: 11:30am-1:30pm

$30 Members, $40 Non-members, $5 Students

View Mr. Bruce's Presentation (PDF)

Karst is found world wide. It is a complex and often underestimated (misunderstood) landform that can have a significant impact on engineering structures, particularly dams. Some dams have leaked. Some have never filled. Recognition of karst and an understanding of the methods of formation are required to provide sound engineering. This presentation will summarize how karst forms and how to recognize and classify it and follow up with examples from projects in Papua New Guinea, The Dominican Republic and Peru.

Dr. Iain Bruce is a geotechnical engineer with a strong background in engineering geology, soil and rock mechanics. During the past 30 years he has specialized in waste management for the mining industry particularly with respect to the design, construction or review of tailings dams built using the waste themselves, as well as the design of water retaining type dams built from waste rock fill or borrow from developed quarries. He has designed and supervised construction of tailing dams and waste dumps both in permafrost and temperate regions but recent projects have emphasized the use of using laterite and saprolite residual soils for construction. He has recently supervised the initiation of tailings dam closures at several mines throughout North America.

During the past 25 years, Dr. Bruce has gained significant experience in areas of complex engineering geology including karst and tropical soils in high rainfall areas in Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana, and areas of desert soils in Northern Chile, Peru and Argentina. Dr. Bruce has extensive international experience from Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Argentina, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia and the United States. He has also worked throughout Canada on tailings dams in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Yukon and Northwest Territories.