The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy

International Symposium on Stability of Rock Slopes in Open Pit Mining and Civil Engineering
Peter Stacey

FACTORS IN THE DESIGN OF OPEN PIT SLOPES

A REVIEWERS PERSPECTIVE
Peter Stacey
Stacey Mining Geotechnical Ltd.
ABSTRACT
This presentation provides comments on the increasing challenges associated with pit
slope designs from the perspective of a design reviewer. Besides the technical issues
related to the significant increase in current and proposed slope heights since the
primary methodology in current use for pit slope designs was developed, other factors
are coming into play. These include changes in mining equipment and associated
operating practices, as well as a growing awareness on the part of mining executives and
other stakeholders of the significance of stable, or at least well-managed, slopes. In the
latter area, the associated clarification of responsibility has led to the increased use of
either in-house or independent review consultants working on the behalf of
management.
From a technical perspective, since the mid-1970s there have been significant
improvements in the tools, particularly analytical methods, that are available to slope
designers. There is also an increased understanding of the importance of a detailed
geological model, with strong emphasis on alteration and/or structure to form the
platform for the slope designs. However, the basic technology for determining the rock
strength aspects has changed little, although an expanding body of experience is being
accumulated in its use and there is a reasonable degree of comfort in its application for
slope heights of up to at least 500 m. In addition, slope management is now viewed as a
critical part of the implementation of slope designs and this has been supported by
continuing improvements in slope monitoring systems.
In recent years safety has become a primary concern, in part as a result of some major
slope failures that have attracted the attention of regulators and the public, as well as
mining executives, who are being held more responsible for unsafe conditions and
associated events. There is therefore a growing demand for risk assessments to replace
the deterministic design approaches upon which the current design technology is largely
based.
The focus of mine executives on safety has undoubtedly in part facilitated the recent
long overdue revitalization of research into the design and stability of large pit slopes,
the requirement for which has been recognized for many years by practitioners. This
research, as well as the CSIRO Large Open Pit Study, will almost certainly provide
advances beyond the empirical strength determination methods such as the Hoek-Brown
failure criterion, which form the basis for current rockmass strength determination. At
the same time, as mentioned above, there is a growing awareness of the requirement for
a detailed structural model as a major component of every large slope design. In
addition, other areas requiring further research include the impact of groundwater
pressures on rock mass strength, particularly in rocks with low permeabilities, and the
role of stress in high open pit slopes.
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The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy

International Symposium on Stability of Rock Slopes
Peter Stacey

From the perspective of design implementation, even with the recent significant
advances in metal prices, mine operators remain under pressure to minimize mining
costs. To address these constraints, mining equipment of ever increasing size is being
introduced. There are, however, some disadvantages to this trend in the area of slope
design. For example, the large electric shovels are not well designed for scaling bench
faces, nor are they cost effective in this mode. As a result, specialized equipment may
be needed in the mining cycle to perform the clean-up duties, which in turn increases
operating costs. Further, where the large equipment is used in minimum width
pushbacks to reduce the instantaneous stripping ratio, the advance rates can be high, but
at the same time the associated changes in operating procedures are often not conducive
to the concurrent use of such measures as controlled blasting, careful scaling and drain
hole installation that generally improve stability. The resulting conflicts which may
arise between the interests of production and those of slope stability are often
exacerbated by the fact that these stabilization techniques actually increase the operating
costs on which the operations manager is frequently judged, even though there is an
overall increase in profit. Meeting the objective of developing slope designs which are
practicable , i.e., achievable in terms of every aspect of the operating constraints in the
specific pit, requires interaction and compromise between the geotechnical engineer,
mine planners and operating staff during the formulation of the design criteria.
In the current environment, it is often no longer sufficient to present slope designs in
deterministic terms to a mine planner who accepts them almost without question.
Increasingly, the requirement is that they be proposed within the framework of risk
levels, related both to safety and to economic outcomes, to a decision maker who may
not be a technical expert in the mining field. In this context, the mine executives must
have sufficient information and understanding to be able to establish acceptable levels
of risk for the company and other stakeholders; in this process the slope designers must
play a major role.
These changing requirements for presentation of slope designs necessitate clear
communication of the basis for the design, which may be very complex, so that the
implications of the designs may be thoroughly understood by all concerned. To ensure
clarity at this stage, the slope designer must not only quantify the uncertainty in the
input parameters, including the geological model, but must also be able to communicate
and defend the resulting design recommendations. Where particular designs may have
high associated risks, simply because of the degree of uncertainty in the data, this must
also be recognized and proposed methods of reducing the uncertainty included in the
presentation.
In summary, from a reviewers perspective slope designs must not only be technically
sound, but must also address the broader context of the mining operation as a whole,
taking into account such factors as safety aspects, the available equipment to implement
the designs, and the acceptable risk levels for the company. In addition, the designs
must be presented in a way that will allow the mine executives, who are ultimately
responsible, and the operators, who implement the designs, to fully understand the basis
and short-comings of the designs and the risks associated with deviation from any
constraints defined by the designer. It goes without saying that there must also be a
well-defined monitoring system to confirm stability and detect and manage any
variations in the design model or unexpected instability.
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