On a global scale, the demand for mineral products has increased substantially with economic development. Consequently, the mining of mineral resources results in the production and accumulation of a large number of tailings, causing many problems with respect to mining, the environment, and the economy. In the mining process, tailings must be reasonably treated to prevent them from entering the water cycle through rivers. The storage of tailings under water can effectively hinder the chemical reactions that they undergo. Therefore, it is a critical practice to store these substances in ponds or impoundments behind dams. However, tailings dams frequently fail, resulting in the discharge of significant quantities of tailings into the natural environment, thereby causing grievous casualties and serious economic losses. This paper discusses reasons including seepage, foundation failure, overtopping, and earthquake for tailings dam failures and explores failure mechanisms by referring to the available literature. This research has determined that the failure of tailings dams is closely related to the state of the country’s economy. Most of the tailings dam breakages in developed countries occurred decades ago. In recent years, the proportion of tailings dam failures in developing countries has been relatively high. Considering the serious damages caused by tailings dam breakage, it is important to understand the main reasons and mechanisms for their failure. The purpose of this review is to provide a reference for the design and construction to the building of the tailing dams and to reduce the occurrences of their failure.

The purpose of establishing a tailings dam is to safely store tailings to protect the natural environment from damage. Accidents at tailings dams are frequent, however, with serious consequences of not only threats to life and property but also the pollution of the environment. Many tailings dam accidents are caused by seepage failure. In this paper, the object of the case study is the Lixi tailings dam. Three- and two-dimensional finite element models are established. The seepage field of the project under different working conditions is simulated and the position of the phreatic line is obtained. The safety factors under different working conditions are obtained by combining the seepage field with the stable surface. Finally, the influence of different dry and upstream slope ratio on seepage and stability of tailings dam is obtained. The results show that the longer the length of the dry beach, the lower the phreatic line and the greater the safety factor. The higher the upstream slope ratio, the lower the phreatic line and the greater the safety factor.