Causes of Pit Wall Slope Instability in Zhelezny Mine by Radar Monitoring
A. S. Kalyuzhny, I. Yu. Rozanov
Mining Institute, Kola Science Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Apatity, Russia
Keywords: Open pit mine, pit wall, slope, Kovdor GOK, stability estimation, stability factor, weak surface, Morgenstern-Price method, SVSlope, IBIS radar
Abstract
The article discusses an integrated approach to finding causes of pit wall failure in Zhelezny Mine of Kovdor GOK. Radar monitoring with IBIS provided data for the slope instability prediction. The stability calculation is performed and analyzed for the failed site of the pit wall. It is shown at the adopted strength properties, failure of the upper bench is only possible as its stability factor is less than 1.50. The causes of instability could be the decreased strength of the pit wall as a result of weathering or watering, and failure could occur along a fracture. An industrial building in the close vicinity of the failure site had no influence on the slope stability. The recommendations on finding certain causes of instability are given.
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