The complexity of shear zones in open pit mines was highlighted at the recent RocScience Africa conference in Accra, Ghana.
Presenting a paper on a case study from a West African mine, mining consultancy firm SRK Consulting mining rock engineer Tafadzwa Chindedza highlighted the importance of understanding how these structures are composed and where they are located. This could lead to the improved design of open pit slopes to more predictably fulfil their predetermined design criteria.
“A widely accepted fundamental principal when assessing potential failure mechanisms in any rock mass is that in stronger rocks, the primary control on failure is likely to be structure, while, in weaker rocks, it is usually a strength. Nevertheless, the real challenge for the geotechnical engineer who works with geological material is that it is seldom one, but rather a combination of these two factors.”
