There have been a number of Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) failures in the mining industry over recent years. In particular, the most recent failure at Brumadinho led to a significant number of fatalities. This TSF had been inactive for a number of years at the time of failure. A failure under such circumstances differs in some ways from common wisdom in the mining industry, which suggests a TSF generally becomes “safer” after deposition has ceased. This presentation will discuss various failure mechanisms for TSFs that are potentially applicable to inactive TSFs, and how the management of these should be considered following operations, in particular during closure design and construction works.