"While tailings dams are meant to last for ever, extreme weather events are making many unstable – with devastating consequences for nature and humans"
"As soon as the barrier broke, a flood of poison brought death to the river. Gushing through the fragile wall built to hold back mining waste in Zambia’s copper belt in February 2025, more than 50m cubic litres of acid and heavy metals poured into the Chambishi stream – a tributary of the Kafue River, the country’s longest waterway.
Thousands of lifeless fish rose to the surface as a plume of acid floated downriver, leaving dead crocodiles and other wildlife in its wake.
For the millions of Zambians that depend on the Kafue, the tailings dam collapse at the Chinese state-owned Sino-Metals Leach copper mine triggered a national environmental emergency that is yet to end. The spill shut down drinking water supplies for Kitwe, Zambia’s third-largest city, home to half a million people.
Signs of pollution were detected 60 miles downstream from the collapse. Helicopters chased the spill downriver, dropping lime into the water in an attempt to neutralise its corrosive potency."
Patrick Greenfield and Olga Manda report for the Guardian March 13, 2026.
SEE ALSO:
"Mount Polley Can Continue Tailings Expansion, BC Supreme Court Says" (The Tyee)
"Congo, Cobalt and Children — A Tailings Dam Fails in Kolwezi" (Investor News)
"Judge Orders More Review Of Dam Risks At Planned Western Alaska Gold Mine" (Alaska Beacon)
"Kennecott’s Tailings Pond May Be Leaking Into The Great Salt Lake" (Salt Lake Tribune)
