Open Cut

Autonomous Sensors for Monitoring Spoil Dumps and Tailings Dams

A critical parameter in determining slope stability for spoil piles and tailing dams are groundwater conditions.  Current technologies such as cabled or standpipe piezometers are used to collect groundwater information from spoil pile. However, this type of information is difficult to ....  read more

Autonomous Water Pressure Sensors for Spoil Dumps and Dams

The geotechnical integrity and stability of a mine spoil dump or tailings dam can be weakened by factors including abnormal pore pressures and movement induced by ground water permeating the embankment or the foundation of these structures. These factors greatly affect the design, layout, ....  read more

Baseline data for the development of automated characterisation of waste materials

The primary purpose of C29044 was to assemble a set of high‐quality data on a diverse range of characterised spoils that could be used (by C29048 Image Based Automated Characterisation of Waste Materials) to calibrate a “machine learning” model to recognise spoil category ....  read more

Bulking and Subsequent Self-Weight and Saturation Settlements, and Geotechnical Stability, of Deep Coal Mine Spoil Piles

Australia's open cut coal mines are extending to ever increasing depths, with correspondingly deeper associated spoil piles. As the depth of spoil increases, the net bulking of the spoil becomes critical to the design, sizing, geotechnical stability assessment, and cost estimation, of both ....  read more

Coal Subsurface Mapping

This two stage project developed a machine-mounted sensing system that measures the depth of an underlying coal seam floor boundary during rip and stack mining. The earlier stage demonstrated a prototype ground penetrating radar (GPR) sensing system towed by a mobile platform across a ....  read more

Effective Slope Monitoring for Open Cut Coal Mines

This research project has been undertaken with the aim of improving knowledge in the behavior of the rock slopes at Australian coal mines. A large database of Slope Stability Radar (SSR) deformation data has been searched and analyzed for rock failures using parameters related to deformation ....  read more

Energy Adsorption Capacity of Muck Piles and their Status as Engineered Hard Barriers

Windrows or safety berms are used in mine sites to protect haul trucks from rolling over an edge and to avoid collisions. Their current design is based on rules of thumb and the behaviour of windrows in mining applications is still poorly understood. It is, however, well known that the problem ....  read more

ESFC-Based Trigger Levels For Monitoring Pit Wall Stability

Project C15033 involved detailed theoretical and fieldwork-based investigations of a perplexing geotechnical hazard for open cut coal mining.  Sudden composite-style failures of highwalls typically occur while coal mining activities are taking place at pit floor level.  Within the ....  read more

Estimation of True Deformation Vector from Slope Radar Monitoring

Slope deformation radar monitors are now widely used in open cut coal mining for monitoring highwall and low wall deformations. Their introduction has facilitated better management of risk associated with slope failure during mining and therefore protection of personnel and equipment. A well ....  read more

Geotechnical Hazard Awareness Video for Open Cut Coal Mines

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Safety training means helping people to develop skills, telling people what they should or should not do, or it simply provides them with information (HSE, 2016). Safety training ....  read more

Groundwater Pressures and Flows within Spoil Dumps

This project addressed the knowledge gap on the position of the groundwater surface, which is a key factor for reliable waste rock dump stability analysis.

The data and information assembled in this report suggests that water tables in in‐pit waste rock dumps depend on a host of ....  read more

Image Based Automated Characterisation of Waste Materials

Accurate geotechnical characterisation of mine spoils is critical to enhance dump stability which eventually leads to safe mining operations and optimal environmental rehabilitation. Conventionally, classification of spoils in relevant CoalSpoil (previously known as BMA) categories relies on ....  read more

Improved Management Of The Rock Fall Hazard At The Base Of The Highwalls

Rockfalls are a significant safety hazard in open pit mines and underground mine entries from open cut highwalls. The project aimed to gather coal-mine specific data on rock falls with and without rock fall netting, and to outline a more rigorous approach to the design of face bolting, rock ....  read more

Improved Structural Mapping of Pit Walls Using UAV-based Mobile Laser Scanning

This project evaluated the suitability of a UAV-LiDAR system for mapping structural characteristics of pit walls compared to terrestrial laser scanning and UAV-photogrammetry. A UAV-LiDAR system was integrated, tested in a controlled environment and then deployed in an active mine environment. ....  read more

Improving Blasting Outcomes & Reducing Geotechnical Risks

This project has been the first attempt to integrate developments in blast modelling with geotechnical analysis to improve blasting outcomes and minimise geotechnical risks.

The project's three main objectives include:

• The development of preliminary documentation for

Investigations For Open Pit Geomechanics Using Geophysical Logs

With the move towards deeper open cut coal mines, there is a need for on-going developments in technologies which allow management of geotechnical risk and the maintenance of high levels of productivity. Areas where development is required include highwall stability monitoring, semi-automated ....  read more

Low-cost terrestrial stereo-pair photogrammetric monitoring system for highly hazardous areas

Rigorous geo-hazard management practices require accurate spatial data to classify the type of instabilities, monitor their activity and predict their evolution. Terrestrial laser scanners and ground based radar systems, often implemented in mobile vehicles, are widely used within the mining ....  read more

Open Cut Mine Wall Stability Analysis Utilising Discrete Fracture Networks

Identification of geotechnical hazards in pit walls is an ongoing operational requirement in open pit mining. Improvements in techniques for hazard identification have significant safety implications as open cut operations get deeper and the risks of wall failure increase. The hazards of ....  read more

Pit Wall Strength Estimation With 3D Imaging

Since discontinuities, such as joints, faults, and bedding planes in a rock mass are generally weaker than the intact rock, they often govern the strength of the rock mass and thus control the stability of pit walls. Reliable and efficient estimation of the shear strength of the discontinuities ....  read more

Predicting the Impact of Complex Joint Structures on Mine Operations

The aim of this project was to develop a method for improved prediction of the spatial distribution of rock mass defects and their properties (including fracture frequency) ahead of mining.  Current best practice dictates that both slopes and blast patterns are designed for the ....  read more

Rockfall Hazard Matrix for Risk Reduction in Mine Sites

Rockfall is a major safety hazard in open pit mines which can also have financial consequences should the production be temporarily stopped for safety issues. The safety of the workers in all the areas potentially affected by rockfall has to be rigorously ensured and the risk of not being able ....  read more

Shear Strength Characterisation of In-pit Mud to Ensure Low Wall Stability

High wet season rainfall totals between 2008 and 2013 resulted in the extensive flooding of open cut coal mines, particularly in the Bowen Basin and the formation of in-pit “mud” up to 10 m deep.  To re-start mining and spoiling in-pit, it has proved necessary to remove the ....  read more

The Stability of Very High Spoil Piles

ACARP Project C20019 was commissioned to investigate the strength of spoil materials and groundwater conditions within spoil dumps, and provide guidance for reliable geotechnical design. The design reliability issue arose because current designs are based on precedent testing and experience ....  read more