Chief Inspector of Mines' Investigation Report on Mount Polley
Last updated on December 15, 2020The Report
Immediately following the August 4, 2014 breach of the tailings storage facility at the Mount Polley Mine, the Chief Inspector of Mines launched an investigation into the incident. This report outlines the findings of the investigation that was conducted by a team of investigators who performed a comprehensive, objective and independent investigation into the incident.
The investigation report, which can be viewed and downloaded below, contains the process and findings of the investigation and the 19 recommendations made by the Chief Inspector of Mines.
Appendices
- Appendix 1: Actions of the Chief Inspector (can be found in the Back Matter of the Investigation Report)
- Appendix 2: Assessment of Failure Mechanism
- Appendix 3: Summary of Opinions in Support of CIM Investigation (PDF, 6MB)
Supporting Information
- News Release and Backgrounders (PDF, 564KB)
- Presentation by the Chief Inspector of Mines (PDF, 4MB)
- Decision of the Chief Inspector of Mines (PDF, 94KB)
References
The Chief Inspector of Mines investigation team reviewed over 100,000 pages of documents in the course of their investigation. The documents and other files cited in the Investigation Report are available here in Portable Document Format (PDF), and are organized first by type and then by their 4-digit document identifier.
The following is a list of acronyms and abbreviations used in the References.
| Acronym | Definition |
|---|---|
| AMEC | Amec Earth & Environmental Division of AMEC Americas Ltd. (presently operating as Amec Foster Wheeler) |
| BGC | BGC Engineering Ltd. |
| CIM | Chief Inspector of Mines |
| KCB | Klohn Crippen Berger Ltd. |
| KP | Knight Piésold Ltd. |
| MEM | Ministry of Energy and Mines |
| MOE | Ministry of Environment |
| MPMC | Mount Polley Mining Corporation |
| OMS | Operation, Maintenance and Surveillance Manual |
| TSF | Tailings Storage Facility |
Files by type (PDFs)
- Work Products
- Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Inspection Reports
- Permits
- Mount Polley Mine Policies and Procedures
- Correspondence
- Notes and Other Files
| Document ID | Title | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOC0282 | Mines Act Permit M-200, amendment approving TSF breach repair design for 2015 spring freshet (391KB) | Al Hoffman | December 17, 2014 |
| DOC1386 | Amended Ministry of Environment Permit No. 11678 (304KB) | MOE | November 7, 2012 |
| DOC1387 | Decision Record for Permit No. 11678 amendment (419KB) | MOE | November 7, 2012 |
| DOC1388 | Ministry of Environment assessment of permit amendment (646KB) | MOE | October 26, 2012 |
| Document ID | Title | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOC1536 | TSF Emergency Levels and Procedures (30KB) | MPMC | (no date) |
| DOC1537 | Mill Operators Tailings Check Procedure (20KB) | MPMC | January 1, 2007 |
| Document ID | Title | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOC0003 | Mine Emergency Primary Form, Emergency Management BC report forms and accompanying on-call inspector notes (1.2MB) | Jerrold Jewsbury | August 1, 2014 |
| DOC0010 | Terms of Reference for the Mount Polley Mine Breach Chief Inspector's Investigation (528KB) | Keith Elwood | September 24, 2014 |
| DOC0392 | Dam breach incident notes (134KB) | Chris Carr | August 4, 2014 |
| DOC1482 | May 24, 2014 freeboard incident notes (89KB) | Heather Narynski | May 11, 2015 |