The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
There are some reports today that another mining related landslide occurred in the Morowali area of Indonesia yesterday. There are few details in media reports, but videos have been posted that appear to show a significant event. Most notable is this one, from Tiktok, which seems to show two trucks buried in mined material or mine waste.
This is a still from the video:-
Reports suggest that there were no fatalities, but I am awaiting further information.
Meanwhile, there remains some uncertainty about the two earlier events. Based on reports online, this is the best that I can determine.
The 16/17 March 2025 tailings landslide
There remains considerable uncertainty about this event, which caused extensive and well-reported flooding downstream. This appears to have been the failure of a tailings facility, although I am unable to pinpoint exactly which one.
This article reportedly shows the aftermath of the embankment breach that led to the 16/17 March 2025 event (even though it is wrongly captioned). It appears to have occurred in a more remote location, but until decent satellite imagery is available I will be unable to pin it down.
The 22 March tailings (?) landslide
A further major landslide occurred on 22 March, killing three excavator operators. This failure has been widely reported to have occurred in tailings. There is speculation about the location of this landslide, with some suggesting that it occurred close to the 16/17 March 2025 event – i.e. upstream from the main industrial IMIP sites.
This video, also on Tiktok, shows the search for one of the victims. There are other, similar videos and images. It includes the following view of the location:-
I believe that the most likely location for this landslide is the one that I highlighted in my earlier post:-
The configuration of the site shown above matches this location in a way that the other postulated sites do not. In the video, a large cut in a natural slope is shown, and it is clear that a large industrial facility lies on the downslope side. This includes an area under construction on the right side. All of this matches the above location. although I cannot be definitive of course.
Interestingly, also on Tiktok, there is a video of a landslide in the Morowali area, which partially engulfs a backhoe. This is a still from that video:-
That appears to have been a near-miss event.
Assuming that the video above was not one of the recent landslide events (and I believe that this is the case), it appears that there have been at least four significant landslides at IMIP in Morowali in recent months. This must be a source of very real concern.
However, at this stage there remains very considerable, and frustrating, uncertainty about the events at IMIP.