The catastrophic failure of the Jagersfontein tailings dam: An industrial disaster 150 years in the making.

This study provides a sociohistorical account of decisions made over a 150-year period about the Jagersfontein mine in South Africa's Free State and the catastrophic failure of its tailings dam that occurred in the early morning of September 11, 2022. The failure resulted in the sudden and uncontrolled release of more than 6 million m³ of liquid sludge, smothering nearly 200 nearby houses and approximately 1600 ha of agricultural and grazing land. Two people died, and one remains missing. Our account of this disaster shows the analytic force of examining the history of the mine's development, the issues decision-makers faced at various points in time, the choices made and the cumulative influence of these conditions on human vulnerability. We present a disaster timeline over four historical periods, linking sources and literature to each significant point in the timeline. It is one of the only available tailings dam failure timelines linked to the social context through historical analysis. • Historical analysis is critical to characterizing conditions and causes of disaster. • Novel application of disaster constructs to the examination of tailings dam failure. • Our timeline presents distinct inflection points relevant to the disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]