Tailings and mine waaste 2020 / Хвостохранилища и отходы шахт

The first conference in the series was on Uranium Mill Tailings Management and was held in 1978. It was organized by the Geotechnical Engineering Program of the Civil Engineering Department of Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. The organizing committee consisted of John Nelson, Thomas Shepherd, Steven Abt, Wayne Charlie, and John Welsh. The series of conferences on uranium mill tailings continued through 1985. The nine volumes of proceedings were published totaling some 3,700 pages. By 1984, the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project was well underway. The development of new uranium mines had declined and interest in uranium tailings was no longer wide-spread. Thus in 1984 and 1985, the conference title was expanded to Management of Uranium Mill Tailings, Lowlevel Waste and Hazardous Waste.

In 1986, the organizing committee, this time consisting of Steve Abt, John Nelson, Richard Wardwell, and Dirk van Zyl, changed the title and focus to Geotechnical and Geohydrological Aspects of Waste Management. They noted the following reasons for this change in the preface: “The first five annual symposia focused on the design, construction, and operation of uranium tailings impoundments. The sixth and seventh were of broader scope, and included low-level and hazardous waste management. This eighth symposium continues the process of technology transfer but focuses more precisely on the geotechnical and geohydrological aspects of waste management: the two engineering areas of prime importance in the design and operation of waste disposal facilities.” This symposium attracted about fifty-five papers with the proceedings being 558 pages. This same focus was maintained for the 1987 conference.

By 1988 the uranium market had declined, uranium mills had closed, and support for a symposium on uranium mill tailings, hazardous waste, or most any topic associated with mine waste had declined. Thus the conference was not held from 1988 until 1994. In 1994, Colorado State University, the sponsor of the uranium mill tailings conferences, resuscitated the conference series as Tailings and Mine Waste, the title by which the series goes today. The proceedings of 1994 contain twenty-seven papers. The proceedings from 1995 contain a mere fourteen. By 2003, the paper count was up to sixty and the venue was Vail, Colorado. In 2004 the paper count and attendance reduced leading to a negative financial situation for the conference and reluctance on the part of the management of the Department of Civil Engineering at Colorado State University to support the conference series, thus the conference was not held from 2005 until 2008. <...>