# Review of the Failure at the Flotation Tailings Storage Facility of the \"Stolice\" Mine (Serbia)
## 2 History and Location of the \"Stolice\" Mine and TSF  
The antimony mine \"Stolice\" and TSF are located in Western Serbia in the Krupanj municipality (Figure 1). At one time, it was the largest antimony mine in Serbia. The first investigative works in the mine started at the end of the 19 th century so that the mine could begin serious work and supply the smeller with more than 90% of the ore in 1916 under the management of the then-owners from Austria. The mined ore was prepared in the mine and then transported to the smeller where a concentrate with 40% Sb was obtained. After World War I, the mine temporarily stopped working, to be renewed in 1936 under the management of the new owner of \"Podrinje Consolidated Mines Ltd.\". The mine was operational until World War II, when the former country the Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrendered, and the mine was taken over by Germans. Due to the rebellion of the insurgents, the mine temporarily stopped working in 1942. After the war ended, the mine \"Stolice\" became a part of the public company The \"Zajaca\" Mining Smelter Basin. In 1960, a flotation concentration facility began operating within the mine, with an ore processing capacity of 50,000 t/year. This capacity was increased during the facility reconstruction in 1981 to 80,000 t/year. For the purpose of storing the tailings created during mineral processing, the flotation TSF was built [8; 9]. The mine was operational until 1990 when the last available ore reserves were mined. Issues involving the increased amount of arsenic in the concentrate, which regularly accompanies the antimony ore, as well as the insufficient economic justification for the exploitation, were stated as the reasons for cessation of work. The mine, although inactive, was privatized along with other mines in the Krupanj region in 2006, when it became the property of the Concern \"Farmakom MB\" from Sabac [10]. The flotation TSF of the mine \"Stolice\" represents the valley type of hydraulic TSF, consisting of two fields: eastern and western. It was built up using the introductory method of hydrocyclone sand, which involves the construction of an initial embankment with material from the borrow pit, on which peripheral embankments from the tailings are then added. With this method, the superstructure is built in levels, the height of which  
Figure 1: The location of the of the mine ”Stolice” and TSF. ranges from 3 to 5 m, starting towards the center of the TSF. Every subsequent level rests on the formerly deposited silty tailings, which may negatively impact the stability of the TSF. Due to the segregation and deposition of the material in the form of hydromitxtures, a sedimentary lake is formed [5]. The principle of the formation of the flotation TSF of the \"Stolice\" mine in stages is shown in Figure 2.  
The total surface of the TSF is 32,500 m\({}^{2}\), with the western field being 13,800 m\({}^{2}\) and the eastern one being 10,500 m\({}^{2}\)[11]. During its operational life, a total of 1,200,000 t of tailings was deposited [12], which amounts to around 450,000 m\({}^{3}\) of tailings. In the deposited tailings, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, Co, Ni, Sb, Sn, As, Hg, and Fe are dominant [13]. The TSF is located in Kostajnik (44.408785\({}^{\circ}\), 19.321561\({}^{\circ}\), 390 m.a.s.l) in the basin of the Kostajnicka River, about 150 km southwest of Belgrade, to the right of the state road, class IIa, no. 139 (Krupanj-Korenita-Krst). It is contoured in such a way that it covers two ravines of the so-called Bezimeni stream, which flows into the Kostajnicka River. The Bezimeni Stream was introduced into a 300 m long pipe culvert, while the other part of the stream was carried through the drainage system to the Kostajnicka River, which, together with the Duboki Stream, forms the Korenita River, the left tributary of the Jadar River. In a broader sense, the location of the TSF belongs to the catchment area of the Drina [10].