Genevieve New leads ATCW’s Engineer of Record Technical Community
Genevieve New is an experienced Engineer of Record (EOR) and leads the inaugural EOR Technical Community. We talked to Genevieve about the pivotal role an EOR has in relation to global tailings standards and facility governance.
How do you explain the role of an Engineer of Record?
The Engineer of Record (EOR) is an engineering service company represented by an individual with the experience and competency to evaluate the performance of a Tailings Storage Facility (TSF).
The EOR is responsible for confirming that the TSF is designed, constructed, monitored and decommissioned to maintain the integrity of the structure throughout and that it complies with applicable regulations, codes, standards and guidelines. However, the EOR role does not remove the owner’s responsibility and accountability to manage the facility from inception through to relinquishment.
The requirement for an EOR is based on the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) published in August 2020. The GISTM has six Topic Areas, 15 Principles and 77 auditable Requirements. The EOR is covered by Topic Area IV concerning ongoing management and governance of a tailings facility. The GISTM states, ‘Operators must have zero tolerance for human fatalities and strive for zero harm to people and the environment from the earliest phases of project conception.’
SOURCE: Global Tailings Review.org
What are the key responsibilities of the EOR role?
The GISTM has triggered our clients to ask us to provide Engineer of Record Services. The EOR is responsible for assessing the engineering design and construction of the facility and the adequacy of the operation to an agreed standard to maintain the safe performance of the facility and address the critical risks to people and the environment.
EOR Representatives work closely with a team of engineers and specialists assigned to the facility and provide overarching governance. The EOR Representative or delegate must be on-site during construction activities. In the operational phase, the EOR Representative conducts ongoing site inspections and reviews monitoring data.
For the system to function effectively, the GISTM requires the asset owner to have a representative on-site, known as the Responsible Tailings Facility Engineer, to ensure the operation of the asset is following the plan and to communicate changes in conditions and performance.
How do you approach a facility that has grown and changed over time?
A tailings dam can be a complex structure as it is not designed and built once, like a bridge or an office tower, but undergoes regular change. For example, as the asset increases in size, the load placed on the structure becomes more significant, and what was adequate for an earlier design stage is not necessarily adequate towards the end of life.
The design standard may change throughout the life of the facility, but conversely the ability to change the structure reduces with time. Equally, a lack of data from earlier in the dam’s life impacts the engineer’s understanding of the current condition.
There may be multiple engineers from several companies involved in the life of a facility. This increases the risk of loss of knowledge. This is recognised in the GISTM, which requires the EOR to review and maintain a range of documents to keep the knowledge base current. To effectively meet the intent of GITSM, one engineering company is ideally responsible for all elements of the facility from the start of the engineering process.
With aging facilities, an EOR Representative must have enough experience to analyse the data and changing conditions. For high to extreme-consequence category facilities, the EOR Representative role requires engineers who are veterans in this field and have firsthand experience in incident investigations and failures.
I liken the role of an EOR to that of a medical doctor, who uses X-rays to see the structure, assess for potential failure, and, through this process, exclude, replace or lessen the risk of failure, both in likelihood and impact.
– Genevieve, in an EOR capacity, checking seepage in the field.
Why has GITSM been adopted so well in Australia?
A series of TSF failures occurred between 2014 and 2019 in countries held up as global benchmarks, triggering the call for a new standard.
The first was Mount Polley Tailings Storage Facility in Canada in 2014, which caused significant environmental damage. This was followed by the Fundão Tailings Dam in Brazil in 2015, which resulted in 17 deaths, two missing people and significant environmental damage.
Australia was next in 2018 when the Cadia Northern Tailings Dam failed into the Southern Tailings Dam, where it was fortunately contained. These three incidents became global case studies.
By this time, the Church of England and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) were working to generate the first global standard on tailings management, which became the GISTM.
Then, in 2019, the Feijão Tailings Dam in Brazil failed, resulting in 272 deaths and significant environmental damage.
After the release of the GISTM, many of the world’s largest mining houses committed to implementing the standard. In many cases, insurers and finance providers have since required mine operators to comply with the standard.
The GISTM has been valuable in driving change in the industry. However, it’s not the standard on its own – it’s also the companies that pledge to it under ICMM membership, which has led to increased safety thresholds.
What are the fundamental changes since the GISTM was released?
Since GISTM, I have seen asset owners better understand the risk their TSF can pose and make decisions informed by the potential impacts of a dam failure.
Most of the larger companies have developed and implemented internal policies and standards and set up auditing processes to follow the intent of the GISTM. For sites, there is an increase in the visibility of the status and performance of their assets to the corporate head office, along with the formalisation of an on-site asset representative (RTFE) and, at the corporate level, an Accountable Executive (AE).
Since GISTM, there are three principles that asset owners more readily adopt.
The first principle is to place the safety of people above all else and the use of risk-based design.
The second principle is that there can be no changes to the facility or anything in the downstream environment of the facility without updating the impact predictions of that change on people and the environment.
The third principle relates to developing, maintaining, and continually updating the knowledge base applicable to the facility.
SOURCE: Global Tailings Review.org
Tell us about your role leading the EOR Technical Community.
In late 2023, Darren Watt, CEO of ATC Williams, asked me to consider the Engineer of Record leadership role after expressing a strong interest in developing the technical interests of the business. In early 2024, I formed the EOR Technical Community with Phil Soden, Senior Principal (Melbourne), Ralph Holding, Senior Principal (Brisbane), Kathy Tehrani, Senior Engineer (Brisbane), and myself as members. We report to the Technical Reference Group led by our CTO Behrooz Ghahreman-Nejad.
The EOR Technical Community has developed a Strategic Plan and started its implementation. In the future, we will expand and incorporate representatives from the Newcastle, Hobart, and Perth offices to deliver key technical initiatives. As part of this process, the group will establish clear terms of reference for our services to ensure the quality and consistency of our outcomes.
If you reflect on your career trajectory, does it match what you expected?
While studying, I thought I would end up working in an underground mine, mapping geological structures and designing reinforcing systems. As soon as I started work, I found myself investigating soils and rocks for foundations, predicting tailings and water behaviour, and designing dams. I was not thinking about where I would be in the latter half of my career or leadership roles.
Since the start of my career, I have collaborated with numerous engineers, scientists, operators, and managers in the Australian dam industry while working for ATC Williams, Hatch and GHD, (then) Minara Resources at Murrin Murrin Operations, and Rio Tinto T&I division in Melbourne. I’ve also held volunteer roles supporting the ACG, AusIMM and ANCOLD.
Who I am today is a culmination of my engineering, construction, and operational experience and ongoing technical development guided by colleagues and mentors.
“While I did not know what I would do, I was always interested in seeing a design take shape, working with people and being outdoors. I can honestly say that is the one thing that is ‘as I expected’ or better. Getting out to a site, being outdoors, and collaborating with operators and designers is a joy.”
– Connect with Genevieve on Linkedin
