At least 50 hazardous occurrences associated with tailings facilities occurred in the Canadian mining industry between 2000-2014. Further investigation revealed a dearth of information on worker safety around tailings storage and transport facilities. Workers at oil sands tailings operations are exposed to hazardous scenarios, including loss of containment and line of fire. These are the similar scenarios that manifest in traditional process industries, with the notable differences between traditional process industries and tailings operations being the frequency of incidents, pressures, volumes, and temperatures. The presence of hazardous scenarios and lack of incident reviews illustrate the need for increased attention to be paid to worker safety at oil sand tailings operations as well as enhancements to current hazard identification tools. Process safety management tools such as bow tie diagrams can be applied to tailings operations to visually identify unwanted events (process and occupational health and safety related), potential threats, consequences, and controls used to prevent incidents from occurring. They also serve as a tool for continuous improvement and show any over-reliance on one type of control, such as administrative controls or personal protective equipment. This research combines safety approaches using the bow tie analysis of seven hazardous operational activities in the oil sands tailings operations as a case study. The impact of behavioural safety on the controls is also analyzed. This research facilitated the sharing of tailings safety best practices among oil sands operators and regional contractors.