South America holds some of the largest mining projects around the world. Over the past centuries, mineral richness have stimulated the development of large mining projects with productions over 50,000 tons per day (tpd), which signified new challenges to manage mine wastes, specially tailings. From the Inca empire era, mining also has resulted in what are still breath taking engineering feats, such as: railways through Andes Mountains, bridges that cross chasms, impressive tunnels and amazing hydraulic management. Nowadays, the efficient water/tailings management and physical stability of tailings storage facilities are a priority need. Considering the extreme site-specific conditions of Andes Mountains - dry weather with rainy season, abrupt mountain topography, complex seismic conditions, community environmental constraints and a stringent regulatory framework, a filtered tailings technology has been positioning like an attractive/effective solution for tailings management.

This paper presents design guidelines from a holistic engineering point of view for filtered tailings storage facility projects at the Andean region, focusing for a safe storage of filtered tailings. Some of topics of physical stability to be considered are: (i) filtered tailings disposal/co-disposal techniques, (ii) spreading/compaction plan, including operation issues, and (iii) geotechnical characterization of filtered tailings (Particle size distribution, specific gravity, permeability, shear strength, compressibility, etc.) focusing on seismic behavior of filtered tailings. On the other hand, hydrological stability topics to be considered are related, focused on tailings storage facility (TSF) water management (underdrain system, rainfall collection ditches, seepage control system, dust control, etc.). Finally geochemical/closure stability topics are announced, focusing on progressive closure/reclamation aspects. Four successful filtered tailings storage facilities cases are presented considering its application in Argentina, Peru and Chile; describing their design criteria, learned lessons, advantages/disadvantages and technology performance under particular Andean region conditions.

Finally, advances on filtered tailings technology are presented, with focus on the reduction of TSF footprint and a better authority and community perception, satisfying the need of stable TSFs, indicating the need of new trends for the management of tailings.