Syncrude Tailings Dam

Syncrude Tailings Dam
Syncrude Tailings Dam – Mildred Lake Settling Basin, enclosing tailings pond
Official name	Syncrude Tailings Dam
Location	Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
Coordinates	57°03′25″N 111°36′00″W / 57.057°N 111.600°W / 57.057; -111.600
Construction began	1978
Operator(s)	Syncrude Canada Ltd.
Dam and spillways
Height	133 to 288 ft (41 to 88 m) (2001)[1]
Length	11.3 miles (18.2 km) (2001)[1]

The Syncrude Tailings Dam, impounding the Mildred Lake Settling Basin (MLSB), is an embankment dam that is, by volume of construction material, the largest earth structure in the world in 2001.^[1] It is located 40 km (25 mi) north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, at the northern end of the Mildred Lake lease area owned by Syncrude Canada Ltd. The dam and the tailings reservoir within it are constructed and maintained as part of ongoing operations by Syncrude in extracting oil from the Athabasca oil sands. Other tailings dams constructed and operated in the same area by Syncrude include the Southwest Sand Storage (SWSS),^[2] which is the third largest dam in the world by volume of construction material after the Tarbela Dam.^{[citation needed]}