Impact of longwall mining on slope stability – A case study

Abstract

In recent decades, many open pit (OP) mines have either already made the decision or are at the planning stage to change their mining activity from OP to underground (UG) to remain competitive. Technically, before the OP ends its operation, both OP and UG mining will have to be operated simultaneously for a certain period of time. It is well known that UG operation causes subsidence, discontinuous deformations, and changes in hydrogeological conditions. In case of UG operation located below the OP mine, slope deformation can be expected as a result of subsidence induced by UG exploitation.

Keywords

• open pit (op) mining
• underground mining (ug)
• op–ug interaction
• slope stability analysis
• numerical modeling