So, do I need a do-over from Part 1?   In Part 1, I said that geotechnical engineering consists of two parts:  foundation engineering and soil mechanics.  This left out the rock mechanics people, and often in a mining company, rock mechanics staff are referred to[…]

I have found that this has been a pretty common question throughout my life.  What is a geotechnical engineer?  I tell people that it’s the engineering you need when you do work on, in or with earthen materials.  This doesn’t seem to help much.  It’s[…]

It’s not a statement.  It’s a question. You wake up, have a cup of coffee, you go for a run, shower, dress and got to work. Lather, rinse and repeat. Why?  Why do you keep repeating the cycle? Do you need the money?  Is it[…]

Ralph Peck wrote an article titled. “Where has all the Judgment Gone?”  If you haven’t read that, please stop reading this and go read that.  I forgive you for leaving. This article does not pretend to hold a candle to that paper.  It’s just a[…]

I’m on a trip to Elko, Nevada.  Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time in Elko.  People who just travel through, or maybe just spend a night there, only see some seedy motels and a cheesy casino or two.  That is their impression,[…]

My first degree in college was a B.S. in Mining Engineering.  What the heck is a mining engineer, you ask?  A mining engineer is involved with the engineering aspects related to the extraction of minerals from the earth, either underneath or on the ground.  A[…]

Sometimes, when I want to keep it simple, I tell people that I’m a civil engineer.  In truth, I don’t feel like one.  I don’t have a degree in civil engineering, and I’ve never taken a class that is specific to civil engineers.  But I[…]

I’ve learned a lot from my dad. Like, there is great value in a day of hard work.  Break a sweat.  Even if you’ve done your best, sometimes you have to do it over anyway.  Using what you learned from the first trial should make[…]

As I’ve said previously, for the first time in my life, I now have actual work/life balance.  I’m finding that 3rd party reviews, external technical advisory and involvement in Independent Review Boards is very rewarding.  Speaking of which, I am in between some of my[…]

Gramma loved to collect rocks.  My mom’s mom.  She knew a lot of good places to go.  I wish she had written down all of those places so I could go there.  Her next-door neighbor also collected rocks.  He’d go through his rocks and give[…]

What if mining were to come to an end on our home planet?  It’s likely to happen sooner or later.  Probably not in our lifetimes though, but still, its good to plan ahead.  We can recycle and we can re-harvest whatever is in landfills.  We[…]

One of the most interesting books I’ve ever read is called The Civilized Engineer, by Samuel C. Florman.  I thought it was fascinating.  It was written over three decades ago, but to me, it’s just as applicable today as it was when it was first[…]

Rocks and soils are the main components of our Earth’s crust, and they are the foundation on which we build our civilization.  And some of the rocks are beautiful.  My grandma taught me to be a rockhound when I was really young.  Her neighbor was[…]

Formulating a life-long habit of learning can be a very important aspect in the continued development of an engineer.  Or any person, really.  The simplest way is with on-the-job-training.  Some managers are very good at teaching.  If you don’t have a mentor, you should find[…]

I have a friend who told me that I should go independent.  That was in the late 1990s.  He thought that I could make a comfortable living as an independent CPT engineer.  Attending the site investigations and also doing the data interpretation.  That was before[…]

“If it can’t be grown, it has to be mined”.  Or recycled.  True.  But back to the point.  Even things that are grown require mining.  That’s where fertilizer comes from.  Yes, you can fertilize with manure, but there aren’t that many plant nutrients in manure. […]

We are all very tired of it.  COVID-19 has been a very real part of our lives for a year now, no matter what your politics are, which I won’t go into.  A year has passed since the WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic,[…]

My first podcast on Behind the Scenes with Bryan took place on July 7th, 2019.  I now have over fifty episodes.  Some have been listened to hundreds of times, while some have a few dozen listens.  There is an outfit in Australia who occasionally promotes[…]

According to Wikipedia, the Internet of things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the Internet.  It also seems like the most[…]

A lot of times geotechnical engineers speak of a friction angle as if it is simply a strength parameter.  But is has a physical meaning.  Can you remember the analogy of a sliding block on an inclined plane?  You begin with the block in the[…]

When I worked for engineering consulting firms, their management and human resources staff would, on occasion, become keenly interested in promoting the concept of a work/life balance.  They would usually over-think it.  This is the same organization who came to me one time early in[…]

This brief (poorly captured) video really inspired me.  [oddly you can only find the video on my LinkedIn post, at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bryan-ulrich-08634b13_termination-determination-i-was-inspired-activity-6747225223629828096-Qs-w] This NFL player (De’Vante Bausby) was let go 13 times by various teams.  Along his way, with all of these dismissals mounting, I could[…]

A few days ago, I had my fifth eye operation.  All went well.  The first surgery was to repair a detached retina which was caused by a really good collision when I was 13 years old, playing ice hockey.  The recovery from that was a[…]

I was recently asked to write a testimonial for an upcoming book being published by SME.  The book is titled, “Mine Tailings Perspectives for a Changing World”.  We need more books like this.  The following is a draft of that testimonial.  On Thursday October 19th,[…]

Be it Zoom, Webex, Go To Meeting, Teams or whatever, a remote platform smells as… sweet?  This certainly seems to be the new normal, and necessity being the mother of invention (or creation), I believe we are going to be doing these remote meetings more[…]

In November my former coworker, Andy Rudy, and I will be presenting at the 23rd International Conference on Paste, Thickened and Filtered Tailings, a Virtual Conference.  You can find out about this conference at https://paste2020.com/?idioma=ingles.  Pre-recorded presentations will be available from Monday, November 7 at[…]

When I first started using LinkedIn, I had no idea what it was really for, except for “professional networking”, whatever that is.  That was many years ago.  How long ago, I have no idea.  It isn’t the professional’s version of Facebook, that is for sure. […]

Every time I try to out-guess mother nature, she makes a fool out of me.  For example, I once had a client in Nevada who needed foundation recommendations for a lightly loaded structure that he wanted to have built.  He described the site to me[…]

I just recently finished reading Steven Tyler’s autobiography.  It’s titled, “Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir”.  It was pretty good, especially if you like Aerosmith.  A really good friend of mine has talked me into writing my memoir. […]

A couple of weeks ago I began to have some knee pain.  It started after a very nice 7 mile run from my cabin to one of the local lakes and back.  I tried the traditional treatments of rest, elevation, ice and aspirin.   After a[…]

All good meetings should start with a safety share.  This one is therefor way overdue.  When I was in high school, I was a gymnast.  I specialized in the rings.  You know, the one with the “iron cross”?  That’s always a crowd favorite.  At one[…]

The death of George Floyd was tragic on many levels.  It was not because this was the most gruesome death ever of a black man that the conversation, movement and protests started.  It was because it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Because[…]

A couple of days a go I was fishing on my little pontoon boat.  I wasn’t having any luck, even with my luckiest lure.  I decided that I would try a lure that I’d never used on this lake.  I had to remove two of[…]

There is one thing that has really been good to me during this pandemic.  Fishing.  And, well, having time to catch up on a lot of content too.  There is a lot of really good content being produced now. Back to fishing.  As I’ve written[…]

My financial advisor always tells me that there will be another 2008-type disruption to the stock market.  I could wish that he was wrong, but we just had another one.  By the way, from what I understand, the markets should rebound more quickly this time[…]

THE OBSERVATIONAL METHOD We’ve all heard the expression, “the observational method”, but I think that many practitioners are confused/ill-informed of the actual application of the method.  I’ve heard it being used far out of context.  Let me try to clear up some of the confusion.[…]

I’ve written before about construction work and quality assurance/quality control.  When we do material testing for construction (whether it is earthwork, rock, aggregate, concrete, geosynthetics or whatever), we usually “sample” a small portion of material that is involved in the overall work.  For example, when[…]

Integrity.  What is it?  Merriam Webster defines it as a “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values”.  Interesting.  It isn’t just about doing what you say you will do.  You must adhere to an especially moral value.  If someone has a[…]

NETWORKING Networking is pretty important for professionals, especially early in their careers.  What is networking?  It can and should mean many things.  There are conferences and tradeshows where you can meet or be introduced to others in your industry.  You don’t have to be a[…]

Many years ago, when I worked at the US Bureau of Mines, I wrote a rap song about that job. That song is called The Bolt Boys. It was recorded by a co-worker and friend by the name of Clay Stuckey. That song can be[…]

Early in my career, I was provided with the opportunity to complete almost every aspect related to designing a raise to a tailings facility.  This particular tailings facility was located just to the east of the beautiful town of Silverton, Colorado.  I’ve mentioned Silverton previously,[…]

A few years ago, I was mentoring one of my staff engineers. I had to stop myself part way into the discussion so that I could explain myself.  I had been telling him a story, but there was a purpose to the story.  The story[…]

It’s Day #7 of Working from Home/Social Distancing, and my wife has already reported me to HR three times. A co-worker asked me yesterday if I was going to be working in the office.  I told him “No, I’m avoiding the office like the…plague”.  I[…]

The following is a work of fiction. A while back, I helped defend a previous employer against a very frustrating lawsuit. This particular case pertained to an alleged construction defect. The owner claimed that the engineer and contractor had used reactive aggregate in the concrete,[…]

Passion. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines passion as an intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction. The Urban Dictionary says that “Passion is when you put more energy into something than is required to do it. It is more than just enthusiasm or excitement, passion is[…]

The work we do as geotechnical designers can all come apart if the design intent isn’t followed successfully during the construction phase of the work. This is where construction oversight plays a very important role. During construction, the engineer and the engineer’s team may include[…]

BLENDED TAILINGS AND WASTE ROCK (With a tip o’ the hat to Andy Rudy)Individually, tailings and waste rock usually have some characteristics that could be improved upon. For example, waste rock often has a high amount of void space between the rock particles, which we[…]

Quite a few people have commented to me about my blog, saying that they really enjoyed this article or that one. It always feels good when people recognize (or at least acknowledge) my work. It makes me feel like the effort matters. A dear friend[…]

I know. The expression is supposed to be, “A Diamond is Forever”. Thank you De Beers, but that really isn’t true. Not to knock too much of the luster off of the very famous slogan, but take the example of industrial diamonds that are used[…]

A very dear friend of mine is suffering from a type of blood-borne cancer that is very similar to leukemia. In her particular case, she needs a blood donor so they can harvest a certain type of stem cells (peripheral blood stem cells) that will[…]

The holidays are for family time. Sharing a laugh, sharing love, sharing a meal, and sharing gifts. And having the gift of each other’s company. This Christmas was a little different, as we traveled to Portland, Oregon to visit my daughter, Stephanie. Stephanie has lived[…]

Well… sorry, but I’m mailing this one in. I have come across several people in mining who are beginning to move the needle, but for this one, I am going to take a weak fallback, and include only those who have been inducted into the[…]

This blog has been written with the prompting of my good friend, Dawn. At a lot of sites around the world, tailings are re-mined and re-processed.  When I was living in South Africa (1999 to 2003), I worked on a very large project where tailings[…]

That is one of my favorite expressions. I think that I made it up. If I didn’t, I wish I had.   The “saved” money almost always gets used elsewhere.  Either in the design or in the construction. What am I talking about? Well, it’s[…]

Oprah Winfrey. According to Wikipedia, Oprah Winfrey is an American media executive, actress, talk show host, television producer and philanthropist. By 19, she was a co-anchor for the local evening news. She is best known for her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was[…]

According to their website, The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) works to prevent death, illness, and injury from mining and promote safe and healthful workplaces for U.S. miners. MSHA carries out the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health[…]

Jeff Bezos is well-known as being the founder of Amazon. He graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. He then worked on Wall Street in a variety of related fields until early 1994. Then he founded Amazon. Amazon[…]

On Thursday October 19th, it was my pleasure to once again host the Elko Roundtable. My co-host for the event was my good friend Rick Frechette. My little joke was that I was the host and he was the co-host. This year, the gathering was[…]

The following text is based on a previously unpublished article that I authored in 1995. I’ve made only very minor edits to the original version, and that was only to add a few things here and there. In this day and age, with the aid[…]

There are many people in the world who give me inspiration. Some are bold people who kick ass at everything they touch. Some are people who are at the top of their industry. They not only inspire, but also motivate me. The list is not[…]

I had my first professional publication more than three decades ago. That was at the US Bureau of Mines. I’ve told you about that previously. Since then, I have been published about three dozen more times. A list of most of those publications can found[…]

Now if I tell you that you suffer from delusions. You pay your analyst to reach the same conclusions. You live your life like a canary in a coalmine. You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line. Canary in a coalmine. Canary in[…]

The 1981 movie, “Neighbors” is the story of one man’s quiet suburban life which takes a sickening lurch for the worse when a young couple move into the deserted house next door. From the word go it is obvious these are not the quiet professional[…]

Mr. Musk. You are a risk-taker and a visionary. You are a talented team-builder. Are you ready for a new challenge? I know you’re working on mining in space, but are you really ready? SpaceX has had many firsts. SpaceX’s achievements include sending the first[…]

In-Pit Disposal of Filtered Tailings I’ve written briefly on filtered tailings in other blogs. To re-cap, filtered tailings have the approximate consistency of used, wet coffee grounds from a drip coffee maker. Filtered tailings can be delivered to the TSF by conveyor or truck. Filtered[…]

In Uzbekistan, they celebrated several different new year events. I wish I’d been warned about one in particular. I was at the apartment alone one night, when there was a knock on the door. A group of kids were there. They said something, and threw[…]

Oh, I forgot one story about my first trip to Uzbekistan. My roomie and I had an ongoing contest. It was to find the weirdest thing in a store. One day, I was walking along and found a store I had never seen before. In[…]

The Muruntau gold deposit is in the Kyzyl Kum Desert of Uzbekistan. It is being mined in the world’s largest open-pit gold mine with production of about two million ounces a year. The gold ore resource in the Muruntau deposit, including past production, is about[…]

The Bureau had some real characters. One such character was Iggy. Iggy was a Slovak, and he loved to regale us with his stories. One story involved the “lipstick” factory that he had worked in during the war. Right, Iggy, a lipstick factory. You need[…]

Okay, now back to the story. It’s the story of my first job after college, remember?  When I left college to work for the Bureau, I was a 2-week field camp class away from earning a B.S. degree in geological engineering. After being there for[…]

Okay, I don’t really think that this is an origin story, but it is the story of my first job after college. Maybe it was more of a metamorphosis. But first, some back story. I was in the undergraduate mining engineering program at New Mexico[…]

The California goldrush of the latter part of the 1800s, and later in Colorado and other western states, is a prime example of many things. Man’s quest for treasure. Man’s need for adventure. Man’s ability to overcome extreme odds. And the thought that the American[…]

How many types of tailings facilities are there? How many stars are there in the night’s sky? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? Okay, maybe not that many, but there are a lot, because each one[…]

If you have a degree in geotechnical engineering, being involved with the design of mine waste (and heap leach) facilities is a natural fit. There are very few aspect of geotechnical engineering that are not used for the design of a tailings facility. Well, in[…]

Following a couple of stints in the US Marine Corps (thank you for your service), working as a cook and a hod carrier (Google that!), my dad settled on being a business man. First working at a travel agency, then owning his own, later building[…]

First, what is mining? Mining is the extraction of rocks (stone) or minerals from the earth. Some mineralized deposits are of economic interest to the miner or mining company. Products recovered by mining include metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, salt, gravel, dimensional stone,[…]

Lunar mining? What in the world? Have we already depleted this planet to such a point that we need to begin exploiting other celestial bodies? Nope! But is it real? And is it needed? Let’s find out! There are three primary potential resources existing on[…]

My friend, who I will call “Joe” was commenting to me about my blog, and how Joe has found some of the articles to be especially helpful for non-technical people. Joe mentioned to me that a non-technical article on static liquefaction would be very helpful.[…]

The year was 1985, or there-about. I was in the ground control group at the US Bureau of Mines in Denver. Somebody referred to us as the bolt boys. I wrote this semi-satirical hop-hop song in response. The recording was done by my friend Clay[…]

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was commenting on my blog, and said that I shouldn’t be afraid to change things up.  Post a recipe, or whatever.  Thanks Steve.  Here is a change-up. It was the winter of 2009, just after New Year’s[…]

 It seems like impossible things happen all the time.  As a breather, let’s examine the first stanza of the poem, “It Couldn’t Be Done”, by Edgar Guest:  Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,      But he with a chuckle replied That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he[…]

Preamble. Since the failure of the Mount Polley TSF in British Columbia and Samarco in Brazil, many things have changed in the tailings management industry. New guidance documents and regulations have been promulgated, for example. More and more mining companies have engaged third party reviewers[…]

So let’s talk about tailings. This conversation is overdue.  In particular, let’s talk about hard-rock, milled tailings. There are other materials at other types of mining properties that are sometimes referred to as tailings. For example, at a diamond mine there is the ground waste product,[…]

If I could send a message back to a younger version of myself, I would have a lot to say to me. First, I’d tell myself to not take myself so seriously. Life is short. It is meant to be enjoyed. Literally take time to[…]

Most of the time, engineers calculate “factors of safety” for their designs. A factor of safety tells you how many times safer a design is than is really needed to serve its purpose. For example, an elevator may indicate a maximum load of 1000 pounds.[…]

My good friend, Jagrut Jathal has asked me the following questions: 1. Are upstream tailings dams really to blame for the recent incidents in Brazil? Despite the inherent risks, there are several such facilities across the world that have operated and continue to operate safely.[…]

This is just a very brief follow-up to the two previous parts of this blog. As I stated at the conclusion of Part 2, “In next week’s follow up to this blog, I’ll make it clear that not every emergency can come out this well,[…]

As I was saying, I began to develop a slope stability model.  What is a slope stability model, you may ask.  Well, it’s pretty much what it sounds like.  Some very clever people, starting many decades ago, began trying to solve a very complex issue of determining how[…]

A website provides a database of world-wide tailings dams failures from 1915 to present (https://worldminetailingsfailures.org/).  That website indicates that they support global research in tailings failure root cause, loss prevention and trend analysis.  Their database lists the following TSF failures that have resulted in more than 100[…]

On January 25, 2019, the Córrego do Feijão Dam 1 collapsed at the Vale iron ore mine near Brumadinho in Brazil, releasing 11 million metric tons of tailings into the areas below the facility, including mine infrastructure buildings. The collapse was essentially immediate and nearly[…]

WHEN A TAILINGS FACILITY FAILS When a tailings facility fails, lives are impacted; families are impacted. When a tailings facility fails, the environment suffers; communities can be devastated. When a tailings facility fails, the mining community as a whole suffers. When a tailings facility fails,[…]

In about 1996 or 1997, when I joined Toastmasters (which I highly recommend to anyone who needs to speak in public), my first speech to that group was titled, “I Tell People that I’m a Civil Engineer”.  The next line is… “But I’m not”.  It was a[…]

In April of 2015, I had the distinct pleasure of delivering a talk at the New York city’s chapter of the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration.  The occasion was their annual conference on Current Trends in Mining Finance.  My talk was a bit different[…]

Unlike most water dams, which are typically constructed in a single campaign, a tailings storage facility (TSF) is most often constructed in a number of campaigns, over the life of the mine (or the life of the TSF).  Why?  A water dam is constructed to[…]

The initial stage of mining starts with the process of finding and the exploration of the mineral deposit. Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration. Prospecting is physical work, involving traversing (traditionally on foot or on horseback), panning, sifting and outcrop investigation, and/or looking[…]

I opened the door into a brand new day. I drew the fresh air into my lungs as I gathered an armload of firewood and some kindling. Closing the door behind me, keeping the chill outside, I made my way to the fireplace. I placed[…]

I’m just returning from a trip to Australia, and I thought I’d share some of what I came across there, even though the content on this blog is largely non-technical, and it doesn’t even really follow the general themes of my previous blogs. The trip[…]