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Case studies of slope stability radar used in open cut mines

Article · January 2006

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The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
International Symposium on Stability of Rock Slopes
Neal Harries

CASE STUDIES OF SLOPE STABILITY RADAR USED IN

OPEN CUT MINES

Dr Neal Harries, Dr David Noon, Mr Keith Rowley

The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy

ABSTRACT

The management of risks associated with slope instability is an essential process in the
safe and economic operation of open cut mines. The ‘slope stability radar’ (SSR) has
been developed to better manage those risks. The SSR remotely scans rock slopes to
continuously measure any surface movement and can be used to detect and alert users of
wall movements with sub-millimetre precision. The high level of movement precision
and broad area coverage of the rock face can allow for a better understanding of the
geomechanics of slope deformation, including magnitude of potential failures and
additional warning time of impending instability. Additionally, radar waves adequately
penetrate through rain, dust and smoke to give reliable measurements, 24 hours a day.

SSR systems have been deployed in many mines in Australia, Indonesia, South Africa,
Zambia, Chile and the United States. Greater than 70 rock falls and waste dump failures
(from several to millions of tonnes) have been monitored, and on every occasion
precursor ‘warning’ movements were recorded by the SSR. This technology enables a
radical change in the management of risks in open cut mining. This paper will present
recent case studies of the SSR operation in coal and metalliferous mines.

1. INTRODUCTION

The management of risk to personnel, equipment and continued production associated

with slope instability is one of the key roles of geotechnical and mining engineers in
open cut mines. The importance of slope angles, slope instability and striping ratios on
the economics of open pit operations is well recognised, and it can be quickly
appreciated that eliminating all probability of slope instability by reducing slope angles
is usually economically prohibitive. Therefore, some degree of risk is usually accepted
during the mine design process.

The rock slope design role often incorporates some degree of risk management, either
explicitly or implicitly in the design of pit slopes. Nevertheless, unexpected failures
have occurred in the past and continue to do so today. These slope failures motivated
the development of the slope stability radar (SSR). The SSR system can detect and alert
movements of a wall with sub-millimetre precision, with continuity and broad area
coverage. This monitoring occurs without the need for mounted reflectors or equipment
on the wall and the radar waves adequately penetrate through rain, dust and smoke, 24
hours a day (see Noon, 2003; for more details about the SSR technology).

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The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
International Symposium on Stability of Rock Slopes
Neal Harries

The SSR system produces data for interpretation usually within minutes. The data from
the slope stability radar is presented in two formats. Firstly, as a coloured “rainbow
plot” of total movement which quickly enables the user to determine the extent of the
failure and where the greatest movements are occurring (which is useful to characterise
the type of failure). Secondly, any number of time/displacement graphs can be created
at any locations within the scan area to evaluate displacement rates and aid in the
creation of alarm triggers for action response plans.

To date, SSR units have detected and recorded warning movements in over 70 rock falls
and slope failures ranging from just a few tonnes to many millions of tonnes. The SSR
units have operated within highly variable geotechnical conditions including massive
hard rock, intensely fractured, foliated ultramafics, weathered oxide pits, coal strata and
waste dumps of variable characteristics. This paper presents several case studies of the
SSR providing improved operational risk management by characterising the slope
instability, and providing sufficient warning time prior to failure.

2. COAL MINING (MOUNT OWEN MINE, AUSTRALIA)

2.1 Introduction

The Mount Owen Coal Mine is located in the Hunter Valley, Australia and is owned by
XSTRATA Coal. The North Pit of the Mount Owen Complex of coal mines is the
deepest open cut coal operation in Australia with depths in excess of 270 m and has
extreme and unusual geological conditions. It is located between two regional thrust
faults, with the coal intensely faulted and folded with the dip of bedding between 10-45
degrees. This results in some challenging geotechnical conditions, both in the high wall
and in the low wall floor conditions.

2.2 Overview of SSR Positioning and General Conditions

Mount Owen was monitoring an unstable low wall using traditional methods for over
twelve months. When the movement rates became excessive, the mine utilised the SSR
which commenced on 13th January 2005. The monitored wall is concave, with the SSR
positioned to the extreme left hand side (see Figure 1).

2.3 Radar Parameter Setup

The SSR permits users to enter parameters that define the conditions for alarm
generation. One urgent alarm (red alert) was set for the scanned area using a 70 mm
movement threshold over a time period of 45 minutes. This alarm could be triggered
within a scanned, pixelled area of 1029m2.

2.4 Failure Characteristics

1. The slump was a multi-bench, day lighted circular failure.

2. The material that slumped was spoil that formed part of the mine dump and
access roads to the dump area.
3. The low wall slumped as a single entity and caused 10-15 metres of floor heave.

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The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
International Symposium on Stability of Rock Slopes
Neal Harries

4. The official estimated failure size was 15,000,000 to 30,000,000 m3.

5. The slump occurred at approx 7.40 am 29/01/2005.
6. Deformation up to 1000 mm in the area of the slip was recorded at the time of
failure. The deformation data in Figure 1 is colour coded and clearly shows
movement over the whole slump area. Note the absence of detectable movement
around the well defined slump area. The two graphs show points within the
moving mass which show characteristic acceleration (progressive failure
response) prior to failure.

Figure 1: SSR Visual of the Mt Owen Wall Failure (with Selected Displacement Plots)

Approx 30m slump in

this area

Slump Area

Figure 2: Visual of Alarm Trigger and Failure Surface

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The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
International Symposium on Stability of Rock Slopes
Neal Harries

2.5 Operational Aspects

1. The red alert was first sounded at 03:43 on 29/01/05 (see Figure 2).
2. The alarm procedures were followed by the control room staff.
3. The slump occurred at approx 07:40 on 29/01/05.
4. The movement detected was consistent with that set in the alarm parameters.
5. Using the alarm settings discussed, approximately 4 hours of warning was
received prior to the impending slump.

Management plans developed on site incorporating the SSR enabled operations to

continue up until approximately 5 am that morning. At this point overburden haulage
over the low wall dump ceased. Comments from members of the inspection team that
witnessed the failure unfold include: “There were few tell-tale signs when it failed, no
rilling of material over the dump, no rapid opening of cracks, no dust, no noise, only
minor trickling of material along the day-lighting surface of the surface” and “…Strange
silence prior to failure...then I saw the ramp just raise 10m in the air at a rate of about
1m/second…” (Pisters, 2005).

The combination of the SSR and a well developed trigger action response plan (TARP)
at Mt Owen was the key to the success in managing the risks associated with the low
wall instability.

3. METALLIFEROUS MINING

3.1 Introduction

Although initially developed in the coal mining environment, SSR systems have
obtained far greater acceptance throughout the metalliferous mines of Australia and
Africa. The first SSR unit to be deployed in Africa was in Novemeber 2003 on a 3
month trial (described in Poggiolini, 2005) but due to it’s effectiveness in managing
slope instability risk has remained on-site to this day. There are currently 8 SSR units
in Africa with 5 SSR units currently on long term deployments at operating diamond,
iron and copper mines. The rock mass conditions, geometry, operation and risk
exposure of metalliferous mines can be significantly different to that in coal mines. A
number of smaller, slope failures (rock falls) are described in the following section,
which although much smaller in magnitude to the Mt Owen low wall failure also carry a
significant risk due to the speed at which the failures develop and the higher exposure of
workers (and infrastructure) to potential slope failures in metalliferous mines.

3.2 Radar Parameter Setup and Alarming

The SSR is often used in localised critical monitoring such as where active mining is
occurring in the pit or along the main haul roads. Unlike the case in Mt Owen where the
SSR was used to monitor an ongoing (but relatively low velocity) slope failure, the SSR
systems in metalliferous mines are mostly being used to identify smaller failures that
may develop quite rapidly following excavation, blasting or other change in loading
conditions. To this aim, four alarms are often used at an operation:

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The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
International Symposium on Stability of Rock Slopes
Neal Harries

• Red Alarm – critical alarm situation where an emergency situation is announced

and the pit superintendent is notified to evacuate the area of concern as well as
calling the geotechnical department.

• Orange Alarm – so called “geotech alarm” where movements indicate a

developing situation that the geotechnical department should be made aware of
and provide guidance on.

• Yellow Alarm – system failure in the radar which results in the pit
superintendent being notified that the radar is unavailable and geotechnical
department notified to assess the SSR (with GroundProbe support).

• Green Alarm – a minor system failure where the SSR is shutdown and SSR
viewer program restarted as per procedure.

The selection of alarm triggers is done on a custom basis by the mine geotechnical
personnel as alarms can be set up on threshold displacement, time (using time and
displacement to get a velocity trigger) and size of failure. The SSR data is continuously
dispatched to the control room and screened. When an alarm is triggered, on screen
instructions with the alarm ensures that the appropriate target action response plan is
undertaken.

3.3 SSR Monitored Rock Fall Number 1

The SSR response from the first rock fall captured by a SSR at an African Mining
Operation is shown below in Figure 3.

Time of
failure
Rapid Location of
acceleration rockfall
of
monitoring
point

Time where
monitoring point Location
diverges from of
long term trend rockfall
(initiation of
failure)

Figure 3: SSR visual of the Rock Fall (with Selected Displacement Plot)

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The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
International Symposium on Stability of Rock Slopes
Neal Harries

It occurred two weeks into the initial field trial and was a small 300 t failure. The failure
can be seen to develop on the SSR deformation plot, where 54 mm of movement was
seen over 240 minutes prior to actual rock fall event (when the failed rock detaches
itself from the face). Even with a small failure in a brittle rock mass, the SSR did
provide over an hour of warning which would allow the area of concern to be cleared of
personnel and equipment.

The small size of the failure that was monitored is such that it may ‘fall in the gaps’
between conventional prism monitoring programs (typically on a 50 by 50 m grid or
more) and use of the SSR allowed real time monitoring and alarming. This resolution of
failure detection and speed of alarming resulted in adoption of the technology as part of
the slope instability risk management process and there has constantly been a SSR unit
at the operation since the initial trial.

3.4 SSR Monitored Rock Fall Number 2

The second example highlights failure associated with active mining (excavation). In
this example a small (less than bench height) rock slab failed due to excavation at the
toe of the slope. The small size of the rock slab can be seen in Figure 4.

Failed Rock Slab

Figure 4: Small Rock Slab Failure

The SSR response to this failure can be seen in Figure 5. The large pixel size of the
SSR image is due to the small size of the failure and distance (approx 400 m) from the
radar to the slope. The monitoring point located to the left of the failure (the upper
displacement graph) shows a maximum movement of 3 mm. At the actual site of the
failure the deformation (lower displacement graph) shows up to 250 mm of movement.
Rather than a typical acceleration profile, the figure shows a stepped profile with steps
relating to actual excavation events. Shovel digging and removing of rock from the
rock slab occurred up to 17:30. The slab finally detached from the face at 18:20.

Page 6 of 8
The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
International Symposium on Stability of Rock Slopes
Neal Harries

3 mm of
deformation
(stable)

250 mm of Unstable
deformation slab
prior to failure

Excavation &
Movement

Figure 5: SSR Visual of the Rock Slab Failure Caused by Undermining the Toe

The situation discussed above is a relatively common occurrence in mining where walls
have to be “cleaned” to make them safer. The benefit that the SSR system provides is
that it allows the dimensions of any potential failure to be ascertained and can help
control the risk to the shovel operation. The sensitivity of the SSR unit means that the
system can be a huge improvement on the traditional use of spotters in such operations.

4. CONCLUSIONS

The SSR is a state-of-the-art development for monitoring slope movement in open pit
mines. It offers unprecedented sub-millimetre precision and broad area coverage of wall
movements through rain, dust and smoke. The real-time display of the movement of
mine walls has allowed continuous management of the risk of slope instability at a mine
operations level. There are two key roles where mines are now using the slope stability
radar:

1. Safety Critical Monitoring: The radar is used during mining production as a primary
monitoring tool of a designated unstable slope.

2. Campaign Monitoring: The radar is moved around the mine in a repeatable manner to
compare movements at each site over an extended time, and determine problematic
areas. Campaign monitoring in this manner is often used in metalliferous mines until
determination of developing failure is observed.

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 The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
International Symposium on Stability of Rock Slopes
Neal Harries

In the case studies discussed in this paper, the SSR was utilised in the safety critical
role. The SSR technology has enabled a radical change in the management of risks in
open cut mining operations, which has resulted in a rapid take-up of the technology
throughout the world to date. At a number of mines, the SSR is now an integral part of
the mine providing major contributions to the mine’s future plans (Naismith, 2005). It is
also believed that the SSR will contribute significantly to safety and mine design by
providing accurate, reliable deformation data that may be later reviewed to further
develop our understanding and analysis of failure mechanisms in open pit mines;
eventually leading to improved slope design.

REFERENCES

NAISMITH, A. SRK Use New Technology to Manage Slope Collapse, Mining Review
Africa, Issue 2, 2005. pp 40.

NOON, D. Slope Stability Radar for Monitoring Mine Walls, Mining Risk Management
Conference, Sydney, NSW, 2003. pp 1 – 12.

PISTERS, D. Development of Generic Guidelines for Low Wall Instability

Management Utilising the Slope Stability Radar – Case Studies from the Hunter Valley
and Bowen Basin, Bowen Basin Symposium 2005 – The Future for Coal – Fuel for
Thought, Yeppoon, QLD, Australia, 2005. pp 245 - 252.

POGGIOLINI, D. Slope Stability – Australian Technology Helps African Mines

Manage Risk, African Mining, May-June 2005. pp 36-39.

POGGIOLINI, D. Ground-Breaking Slope Stability Techniques, Mining Mirror, May

2005. pp 18-20.

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