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RockMine: Rock Mechanics Technology in Mining
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 Bingham Canyon Mine Slope FailureFriday, April 12, 2013A massive slope failure has occurred at the open pit of the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah. Nobody was hurt: the mine had been monitoring movement and when deformation increased from 1 mm a day to 5 mms day they pulled out all workers. read more » What are the ‘geological challenges’ of WV coal?Monday, September 24, 2012It seems just about every coal company operating in Appalachia has been talking about "geologic challenges" in their financial reports. What does that mean? read more » On seismic signals from landslides – new research Tuesday, November 29, 2011See a massive rock avalanche in action somewhere up in Alps and learn how to read seismic recordings to be able to detect this kind of events. read more » Raise boring machinesThursday, July 14, 2011Raise boring, as a technique or system of driving raises (vertical or near vertical holes) continues to gain in popularity due to its many important advantages over conventional methods. read more » Underhand Cut and Fill Mining in the U.S.Tuesday, April 26, 2011Underhand cut and fill mining methods are used at the Lucky Friday, Stillwater, and Galena mines in the western US in an effort to safely mine in difficult ground conditions and as a primary mining method where access below the ore is limited. read more » Water problems associated with undersea coal miningTuesday, April 26, 2011Coal mining under the sea has been carried out in many different parts of the world. The first consideration associated with undersea mining or for that matter under bodies of water or under sub-surface aquifers, is to ... read more » California Earthquake Fault Zone MapsThursday, February 10, 2011The index map identifies all Official Maps of Earthquake Fault Zones delineated by the California Geological Survey through December 2010 under the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act. Individual Earthquake Fault Zone Maps can be viewed on screen. Digital image files (pdf) and Geographic Information System files (GIS) of individual maps can be downloaded by selecting a specific quadrangle map. read more » Cave Breccias and Archaeological SitesTuesday, September 07, 2010Generally, deposition of allochthanous material in caves follows that for most stratified surface deposits; that is, the deposits are locally younging upwards and they tend to be horizontally bedded, and deposits frequently show fining-upwards following stream floods. Many bone breccias may show distinct layering but rock breccias in caves may not conform to such a simple regime. read more » Pre-mechanized longwall mining of coalTuesday, August 03, 2010Miners were able to remove almost all the coal from a section, either by leaving small remnant pillars or building packs to hold the roof in place, while that coal was removed. By retreating the face back towards the shafts, the overlying roof rock was then allowed to collapse into the void left by the coal removal. read more » Closure of Remote Historic Underground Mines in Desert EnvironmentsMonday, July 05, 2010Geotechnical solutions were developed for closure of two historic underground borate mines in the deserts of California: the old Borate Mine located in the Mojave Desert and the Lila C. Mine near Death Valley. read more » SinkholesTuesday, June 08, 2010When water from rainfall moves down through the soil and encounters bedrock in karst terrain, the bedrock begins to dissolve along horizontal and vertical cracks and crevices in the rock. Eventually, these cracks and crevices ... read more » June 2010 Geology and GSA Today highlightsFriday, May 28, 2010Fossils, faulting, continent formation, river evolution, eolian sedimentation - the June Geology covers all this and more, with input from scientists around the world. Highlights include the first field evidence of neotectonic activity in the Hochschwab karst massif; in-situ sampling from the AlpTransit tunnel site; discovery in Mexico of the oldest known Bryozoan fossils; and fingerprinting of magmatic glasses and crystals to determine their "rock DNA." GSA Today examines microbial ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau. read more » Texas earthquakes may be linked to wells for gas miningThursday, March 11, 2010"The earthquakes were right in our backyard, and quakes don't happen too often in Texas," says seismologist Brian Stump of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, senior author on a Leading Edge journal study. "We usually only get small ones." read more » Deeper open pitsMonday, December 07, 2009Surface mines are always seeking to extract more from their existing ore bodies by going deeper, or steeper, or both. Doug Minchin, Director, Rock Australia notes that as well as open pit mines getting larger and deeper, slope design is becoming more aggressive with concomitant high risk in size of failures and consequences. "Slope Failure, even a small rock fall threatens the safety of personnel, plant and equipment, productivity and potentially overall mine viability." read more » Cutting down carbon dioxide emissions in India’s coal sectorTuesday, October 20, 2009A recent study, commissioned by Christian Aid and written by researchers from the Universities of Surrey and Edinburgh, reveals the prospects for Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) technology in India. It examines whether CCS could be a suitable technology for cutting down India’s carbon dioxide emissions. read more » Canadian Study Scrutinizes Carbon CaptureWednesday, October 07, 2009In the face of mounting support for clean coal and the billions being invested in carbon capture and storage, or C.C.S., technology, a new assessment from the University of Toronto’s Munk Center for International Studies has a stern warning for policy-makers: there could be dramatic unintended environmental consequences to sequestering huge amounts of carbon dioxide in the earth's mantle. read more » Burning coal deep down has huge potential, untestedTuesday, October 06, 2009Burning coal underground could be one of the next breakthroughs to increase the world's energy supply, similar to establishment of Canadian oil sands, executives and academics told a conference in London on Monday.
read more » Monitoring faults could predict earthquakes: studyThursday, October 02, 2009Geologists working near California's San Andreas Fault have found a way to monitor the strength of a geologic fault — a finding which could be used to predict when a fault would fail and cause an earthquake. read more » Coal-mining Hazard Resembles Explosive Volcanic Eruption, Study ShowsFriday, October 02, 2009Worldwide, thousands of workers die every year from mining accidents, and instantaneous coal outbursts in underground mines are among the major killers. But although scientists have been investigating coal outbursts for more than 150 years, the precise mechanism is still unknown. read more » To leach or not to leach?Wednesday, September 30, 2009In-situ leaching (ISL) or in-situ recovery was developed in the mid 1970s as a method for extracting uranium from typical roll-front type deposits located in water saturated permeable rocks that were not suitable for conventional mining. It was conceived independently in both the (former) USSR and the USA using similar approaches in engineering and technology. read more » Cost breakingWednesday, September 30, 2009Fragmentation within the mine is often overlooked as a critical element in the process and can be used to provide essential process control information. SPLIT digital fragmentation technology has been available for some time, with applications from the mine with post-blast analysis at the muck pile face through to the mechanical comminution circuit with ... read more » The road to GrasbergWednesday, September 30, 2009Until Bechtel built the first road in the early 1970s, and Freeport Indonesia subsequently developed the area, subrivers were the only access inland to the foothills of the Jayawijaya mountain range on Irian Jaya that hosts what is arguably the greatest ore complex discovered in the world to date, the Grasberg and Ertsberg copper gold deposits. read more » CCS all about finding the ‘right rocks’Wednesday, September 30, 2009The Coal Tech 2009 conference, held on September 15-16th, hosted a range of presentations on technologies including carbon capture and storage (CCS); coal-to-liquids; underground coal gasification; and syngas. read more » Frack Attack - Drilling Technique Under ScrutinyThursday, June 25, 2009Four years after a widely used but controversial oil and gas production technology was exempted from federal regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, Congress is taking another look at the process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. read more » Walter WittkeMonday, November 10, 2008Sometime during completing my master thesis on fluid flow in fractured rock masses, I was sent by Professor Jennings to Karlsruhe University in Germany. There I met Professor Walter Wittke. read more » Rock Mechanics SoftwareFriday, January 18, 2008Here is a list of software and software providers that you may find useful in addressing rock mechanics situations at your mine. read more » Backfill ThesisTuesday, December 18, 2007Trent Weatherwax, a Masters student at the University of British Columbia, sent me a copy of his paper, A Conceptual Design of a Backfill System for Underground Preconcentration Facility. read more » Settle 3D by RocscienceFriday, December 14, 2007In the industrial area of Albuquerque is a large oil tank sitting on foundations I designed. One of the design issues was just how much the soft silty sand beneath the footing would settle. read more » Hoek on Rock MechanicsWednesday, December 05, 2007Anybody interested or involved in rock mechanics will consult Dr. Evert Hoek of his publications. A good place to start is EduMine where you will find his course series on Practical Rock Engineering. read more » FracMan - An UpdateMonday, December 03, 2007Fracman is a powerful way to model groundwater flow in mines where the flow is in the fractured bedrock. read more » FracManWednesday, March 28, 2007It seems so obvious: most mines involve cutting into rock, and rock is fractured. Therefore the stability and groundwater flow patterns of the mine opening, whether open pit or underground, will be controlled by the fractures. read more » |
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