The failures of the Mariana and Brumadinho tailings dams in Minas Gerais, Brazil, had severe environmental repercussions and caused many fatalities. What should or could have been done to prevent these kinds of accidents? This paper discusses the management practices, relevant legislation, and supervision of tailings dams in Brazil, as well as the possible causes of these dam breaks, and evaluates whether the measures taken by National Mining Agency (ANM) will prevent more such accidents. Intensive investigation of these accidents revealed some similarities and discrepancies. The failure mode for both tailings dams was liquefaction flow. Considering that many other tailings dams are in similar conditions, it is likely that further failures may occur, despite the measures taken by the ANM.

中文翻译：

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巴西两起尾矿坝事故的教训

巴西米纳斯吉拉斯州的 Mariana 和 Brumadinho 尾矿坝的故障造成了严重的环境影响，并造成了许多人死亡。应该或可以采取什么措施来防止此类事故的发生？本文讨论了巴西尾矿坝的管理实践、相关立法和监管，以及这些坝坝溃坝的可能原因，并评估了国家矿业局（ANM）采取的措施是否会防止更多此类事故发生。对这些事故的深入调查揭示了一些相似之处和不同之处。两个尾矿坝的破坏模式都是液化流。考虑到许多其他尾矿坝处于类似情况，尽管 ANM 采取了措施，但仍有可能发生进一步的故障。