Geotechnical Assessment of Mine Rock Storage Facilities for Long-term Multi-purpose Use

September 26, 2024

Mine rock storage facilities (MRSFs) are often more than one hundred metres high, hundreds of metres along the crest and may contain millions of cubic metres of mined out rocks and soils. MRSFs behave dynamically, including changes in geometry, volume, and other parameters resulting from large settlements which may continue several years after MRSF construction is completed. As a result, MRSFs are challenging construction environments and historically only less critical and deformation tolerant infrastructure has been constructed on their surface. In order to better understand MRSF behavior and to allow for a greater range of uses, recent studies have focused on quantifying MRSF material properties and behaviors, including settlement. Advancements in settlement monitoring have been valuable in this pursuit, as they allow for enhanced measurements which can be used to accurately estimate long-term settlements. In this study, we leverage settlement data obtained from high resolution InSAR and GPS monitoring at an operating mine site to derive settlement parameters for MRSFs. Our study included initial assessment of the age and thickness of mine rock piles based on historical construction surveys, consideration of primary and secondary settlement behaviors, identification of short-term and long-term settlement parameters, comparison against high accuracy satellite and local measurements and development of a reliable site-specific settlement behavior function. Results were used to closely quantify the possible range of settlement magnitudes which allowed for the design and safe construction of critical and sensitive infrastructures on top of a large mine rock storage facility.

Eshraghian, A., M. Abbas, S. Bundrock and A. Bidwell. 2024. “Geotechnical Assessment of Mine Rock Storage Facilities for Long-Term Multi-Purpose Use,” in Proceedings of GeoMontreal 2024. Resilient Geosciences for Future Generations, 15-18 September 2024, Montreal, QC.