When I started this thread I was sort thinking along the lines of those disasters which should have been foreseen by those very highly paid engineers and geologists but for some reason it didn't happen.
In the 70's or 80's I worked at a mine in remote Qld (The Monument) which was digging up phosphate deposited by beetles of all things. All very good, brand new town which is still deserted (look on google earth and might be owned by IPL, not sure) brand new crushing plant and railway. Wow, this should be great! Guess what? It all went upside down because of some very simple research which was not carried out at the beginning. As far as I know it was due to the processing facilities in Japan or somewhere which was designed for the Nauru type phosphate.
From what I remember, the company was called Broken Hill South and I know some people who still have some of the worthless shares.
Admittedly, it was a bit more of a wild west attitude back then, but even BHP has some mud on their face in recent times.
