Ann: Cadia Northern Tailings Dam, page-14

Thanks for that. Neither of the pictures in the announcement give any sense of the height of the wall. To me, the pictures in the announcement made it look like a low-lying compacted gravel embankment easily repaired in a week by a couple of drivers on bulldozers.

In view of this...

...it's a serious piece of work! You can't just shovel stuff into the gap, it won't be properly integrated with the rest of the wall and will fail again. And the chances are that weaknesses are present elsewhere and it's just the failed bit that went first.

If there are no alternative tailings dumps available then production halt is the only available course until we know the size of the problem and have it under control. Management are showing a good response to the crisis:
1) Immediate action to limit the scope of the issue.
2) Full and immediate disclosure.
3) Immediate action to assess remediation.
4) Investigation of alternatives to mitigate the impact.

They're doing what needs to be done to protect the community, their workers, and us shareholders.