Metal processing industries are growing at a booming pace with the rapid progress of civilization. In metal ore processing industries, soil retaining structures are used to manage and control soil movement, prevent erosion, and support the structural integrity of buildings, processing facilities, and storage areas. In one project in eastern part of India, a very high, approximately 18 m retaining structure was required to hold dump material in a very constrained space. A counterfort retaining wall was proposed to solve this challenge. The conventional earth stress calculations are based on purely cantilever type wall action without considering the presence of counterfort. The primary objective of this research is to ascertain the comparative efficacy of conventional methodologies and numerical studies in the simulation and analysis of lateral soil pressure acting upon retaining wall structures, especially a counterfort retaining wall. This study compares the lateral earth pressures exerted on the wall by conventional theory with a finite element-based numerical model performed in the PLAXIS 3D software. In PLAXIS, the counterforts were modeled as plate elements, and the backfill material was created as Mohr–Coulomb model. The analysis reveals that the conventional method yields active and passive soil pressure values that are in close agreement with the numerical method. This study also offers valuable insights into the relevance of earth pressure estimation using numerical analysis and variation of horizontal soil pressure, which are crucial for effective retaining structure design and performance analysis.