Rock damage assessment in a large unstable slope from microseismic monitoring - MMG century mine case study

Movements, instability and failures in open pit mines can pose important geotechnical problems, leading to major impacts on the safety of personnel and the mining operations. In most modern mechanised open pit mining, geotechnical information in combination with surface monitoring is used to recognise and/or anticipate possible failure mechanisms. However, often engineers can only rely on near surface data and assumptions are made regarding the rock mass behaviour at depth and potential mechanism/s. In this thesis, the author explores the potential of microseismic monitoring applied on a case study of a large scale unstable rock slope at MMG Century Mine and separates the deep seated mechanism of potential instability from the surface instability.