Sue-Anya Khelawan (PMP, MBA, BSc (Hons), Pri.Sci.Nat., SAIEG) is a Senior Consultant in the Tailings and Civil Geotechnical Department at SRK Kazakhstan, with more than 18 years of experience in engineering geology. She is a registered Professional Natural Scientist and a member of the South African Institute for Engineering and Environmental Geologists.
Sue-Anya has extensive project and operational management experience across a broad range of sectors, including: tailings due diligence and technical studies; onshore and offshore port developments; railway and pipeline route assessments; road and bridge infrastructure; water dam investigations; and residential, industrial, and commercial developments. Her experience also covers hydropower and solar power projects.
Her recent work has focused on geotechnical investigations and design for tailings storage facilities (TSFs), in alignment with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM). She has a strong working knowledge of TSFs from concept through to detailed design.
She has led and contributed to geotechnical projects in South Africa, Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi, Liberia, Guinea, Tanzania, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Uganda, Seychelles, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
Sonic Drilling for Tailings Dam Investigations: Unlocking Reliable Sample Recovery in Kazakhstan
This presentation will examine how sonic drilling technology can fundamentally enhance the investigation and management of tailings storage facilities (TSFs), with a particular focus on emerging opportunities in Kazakhstan’s mining sector. The inherent limitations of conventional rotary coring, percussion, and auger drilling methods, especially their poor performance in loose, saturated tailings are a major concern for TSF geotechnical investigations across Kazakhstan, highlighting the need for a more reliable approach to tailings sampling and recovery. The talk will introduce the principles of sonic drilling, explaining how this drilling method enables continuous, high recovery core in very soft/loose, saturated tailings while preserving sample integrity. Drawing on international best practice from South Africa, Canada, the United States, Thailand and Australia, the presentation will show how sonic drilling greatly enhances sample recovery, improves the quality and representativeness of laboratory testing, supports more robust geotechnical parameter selection, and increases confidence in stability modelling, directly contributing to safer tailings dam design, operation, and closure. As global scrutiny of tailings dam safety grows, adopting sonic drilling offers Kazakhstan’s large mining sector a means to align with international best practice, accelerate field investigations, reduce geotechnical uncertainty, and strengthen the basis for safer tailings dam design and management.
