Until recently, the trend in instrumentation for determining the appropriate operation of tailing dams has involved the use of vibrating wire type piezometers and thermometers, complemented with open Casagrande type porous tubes. This technology involves the distribution of sensors in sections along the foundation and base of the tailing dams, and their readings are done manually. Actual risk management models and environmental regulations call for the monitoring of these large retaining structures in order to assess their safety and characterization of subsurface preferential paths.State of the art technology in dam instrumentation has incorporated the use of fiber optic sensors protected with ducts. This system is able to overcome the limitations and shortcomings of the former vibrating wire technology, eliminating problems generated by the high pressures acting at foundation levels, and diminishing the signal decay produced by extremely long cable runs, for example. Groundwater monitoring has incorporated diver and geophysical advanced techniques that map, model and predict paths. The precision and reliability of Fiber Optic Technology has now made it possible to use the precise data acquisition files for on-line, 24/7 real-time operational data management. These quality improved systems allow the dams to be monitored as far as the closure stage of the earthen works, assessing the safe mine closure conditions to become only an extension of the operating control of them, with long, accurate, continuous and precise data for geotechnical diagnostic purposes.
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