Assessment of Historic InSAR Monitoring Data Prior to the Manefay Slide at the Bingham Canyon Mine Using the Latest Analytical Techniques

Details

• Personal Author:
  Gaida M ; Morkeh J ; Robotham ME ; Ross B ; Williams C ; Zebker M
• Description:
  In April 2013, Rio Tinto Kennecott Copper's (RTKC) Bingham Canyon Mine experienced what is arguably the world's largest ever in-pit slope failure. The failure initiated on the East Wall, along a major, continuous, low-strength bedding fault, named the Manefay bed, and comprised approximately 145 million tonnes of rock and waste dump material. East wall slope deformations were detected some months prior to the catastrophic slope collapse by RTKC's ground based slope monitoring systems. Use of existing terrestrial radar and prism monitoring systems provided excellent data to manage the slope failure. The failure resulted in no injuries/loss of life, although the failure runout distance was larger than expected, resulting in the loss of mining equipment and significant production interruption. Post failure investigations identified a RTKC sponsored, university research project which detected a zone of sporadic ground deformation at the crest of the Manefay failure using satellite based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data. When the outcomes of this research study were received in 2010, RTKC responded appropriately by conducting detailed field inspections and installing prisms in the area of concern. Analytical methods for processing InSAR data have improved significantly since the time leading up to the Manefay failure. These updated methods have been used in this study of the available, historic InSAR data with results indicating that significant ground movements were occurring over a number of years prior to failure. Detailed knowledge of these movements could potentially have led to a different interpretation of failure mechanisms and magnitude and in hindsight, different slope management and mine development plans in the years preceding slope failure. From a business and operations perspective, the ability to identify "weak signals" prior to catastrophic slope deformations is essential to appropriate management of such events. The use of InSAR, as discussed in this paper, provides an increased capability for further improved slope management at RTKC, and at other mining operations. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Geology Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Ground Control Ground Monitoring Mine Disasters Mining Industry Rock Falls Rock Mechanics Slope Stability
• Publisher:
  American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Arizona ; New York ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 8 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Utah
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062803
• Citation:
  53rd US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium, June 23-26, 2019, New York, New York. Alexandria, VA: American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA), 2019 Jun; :ARMA 19-2881
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Performing Organization:
  University of Arizona, Tucson
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20100901
• Source Full Name:
  53rd US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium, June 23-26, 2019, New York, New York
• End Date:
  20260831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:935fabd291e9069a3c1803701ee248b614cc347f7169aa53ae099a41b1d7ccb23965903a57b7f42d01226aa4884574aaea70e3448730673e6cc10a1842945084
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/225985/cdc_225985_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.65 MB ]