*This is an abstract only. No full paper is available for this abstract.* The Mount Polley failure in Canada last year has grabbed the attention of many in the tailings management field, particularly in North America. It remains to be seen what effect this failure and the resulting changes in acceptable practice mean in Australia. Notwithstanding the impact the Mount Polley failure has had (and will continue to have) on our industry, another tailings facility failure occurred in 2014, one that generated very little media attention, despite causing three fatalities. The causes of this latter failure may never be as well-investigated as Mount Polley, but the monotonous regularity of failures of this type clearly indicate that significant improvements in tailings management are essential._x000D_
Over the past decade or two, a great deal of attention has been given to the use of high-density, thickened tailings. This presentation reviews some of the operations that have successfully implemented high-density tailings management systems and discusses some of the issues that have been encountered that rendered implementation more difficult than envisaged. Given the emphasis in the Mount Polley report on best available technology (BAT), as opposed to best available practice (BAP), the potential for implementing even higher levels of dewatering (eg producing a filtered tailings) are discussed, drawing on recent use of this technology._x000D_
CITATION: Fourie, A, 2015. Best available practice or best available technology? A review of some dramatic changes in tailings management in the recent past and potential changes in the future, in Proceedings Tailings and Mine Waste Management for the 21st Century , pp 5-6 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).