Design of optimum slopes for safety and conservation In opencastmines – an appraisal

Abstract

Presently, due to ever-increasing demand of minerals for the country, it is very much required to have the opencast mines at a greater depth. Increasing depth also increased the severity of slope stability problems of the opencast mines. Unlike the previous quarrying practices at shallow depths, now-a-days, study the stability of slopes of working benches and waste-dumps of opencast mines and analyzing their stability has become a challenge for the mining community. For the purpose, besides design of slopes by modeling or analytical methods, it is pertinent to utilize various techniques for monitoring the slopes to understand the status of its stability and early detection of instability of slopes for opencast mines. Many fatal accidents due to slope failures in Indian mines indicate the urgent need of conducting slope monitoring for the working benches as well as dumps. With increasing depth of surface mining excavations, the problem of stability of slopes is becoming a major concern for the mining engineers (as shown in Figure 1). In mountainous regions, landslides are a major safety hazard, particularly in the rainy season. Stability analysis of the benches & design of slope parameters, Design of ultimate pit limits, inter-ramps, and safety berms, Design of barrier between water bodies and the open pit,