Mine waste pile

Mine waste stockpile also called mine waste dump is vital to the open-pit mine exploitation. So
called by its name, mine waste dump is primarily utilized to storage the overburden and waste
rock from open-pit mines. The safety and stability of waste dump refers to the mine
sustainability and mine employees and should be paid enough attention. There are many factors
contributing to the stability of a mine waste dump, including physical and chemical composition
of the waste rock, the dumping technologies being used, engineering conditions of the landscape,
hydrogeological condition, and other related parameters.
Stability Analysis
The slope stability analyses are generally performed to measure the safe and economic design of
human-made or natural slopes (e.g. water embankments, open-pit mining, mine excavations,
landfills etc.) and the balancing conditions. The term “slope stability‟ can be defined as the ratio
of the resistance offered by the inclined surface to failure by sliding or collapsing. The main aim
of slope stability analysis are to locate danger areas, supervising potential failure mechanisms,
finding of the slope susceptibility to different triggering mechanisms, designing of optimal
slopes with respect to safety, reliability and economics, designing possible protective measures,
e.g. barriers and stabilization.
Where the stability of a sloped earth mass is to be researched for the probability of failure by
sliding along a circular surface, the principles of engineering statics can be applied to determine
if a stable or unstable condition exists. When the total sliding mass is assumed to be a cylindrical
shaped, a unit width along the face of the slope is taken for analysis, and the slip surface of the
slope cross section is the segment of a circle. The forces affecting the equilibrium of the assumed
failure mass are determined and the rotational moments of these forces with respect to a point
representing the center of the circular arc are computed. In this procedure the weight of the soil
in sliding mass is considered as an external load on the face and top of the slope contribute to
moments which cause movement. The shear strength of the soil on the assumed failure surface
provide resistance to the sliding.
A computational method is used to show if failure occurs is to equate moments that would resist
movement to those that tend to cause movement. The maximum shear strength owned by the soil
is used in calculating the resisting moment. Failure is pointed out when moments causing motion
exceed those resisting motion. The factor of safety against sliding or movement is expresses as

A factor of safety of unity means that the assumed failure mass is about to slide. A variation to
this method for studying slope stability comprises calculating the shear strength required to
provide sliding moments and resisting moments balance (equilibrium). The shearing resistance
needed along the slip surface is compared to the shear strength that can be produced by the soil.
If the soil shearing strength that can be produced by the soil is more than the shearing resistance
required for equilibrium, failure happens with this method, the factor of safety can be calculated
is:
Factors affecting the stability of any slope.
Some of the factors affecting stability are listed below
 Dynamic Forces

 Angle of Internal Friction (ø)

 Cohesion (C)

 Slope Geometry

 Geological Structure (Geology)

 Ground Water Table

 Lithology

GROUND WATER
Presence of this may cause the following problems:
 It changes the cohesion and frictional parameters associated with the slope
 Also it may reduce the normal effective stress
The expansion in upthrust and drainage forces which has an unfavorable impact on the
slope stability is brought on by because of vicinity of the ground water. Due to the
physical & chemical effects of pore water pressure on the joint filling materials, the
friction & cohesion of the discontinuity surface may alter.
Physical effects associated with uplift of the joint surface, reduces the frictional
resistances of the surfaces, which then substantially reduces the shearing resistances
along possible failure plane by lessening the impacts of normal stress following up on the
surface. Because of physical & chemical impact of water pressure in the pore of the rock,
compressive strength diminishes, especially where keeping stress have been diminished
all things considered.
LITHOLOGY
Lithology of the rock unit is considered to describe its physical characteristics which are visible
at outcrop that includes textures, colour, grain size& composition. It generally formed a basis for
subdividing rocks sequence into individual litho-stratigraphic units for the purpose of mapping
and correlation between areas.

ANGLE OF INTERNAL FRICTION (ø)

Usually denoted using “ø”,and it is the angle measured in the middle of the normal force(N) and
the resultant force(R), which are accomplished when failures simply happens in light of a
shearing stress. Tangent (R/N) generated gives the co-efficient of the sliding friction, which is
the degree of extent of capability of a unit rock mass or soil which can able to bear a shear stress
without undergoing failures. This is chiefly affected by particle size and particle slope i.e.
roundness. Particles having easier roundness or vast medium particles size brings about bigger
angle of internal friction. It is basically influenced by quartz content. The sand with less measure
of quartz held more excellent measures of potassium-feldspar, calcite, plagioclase, and/ or
dolomite, and these sorts minerals have by and large higher sliding frictional safety contrasted
with that of quartz.
There are several techniques available to find the angle of internal friction in the laboratory.
Some of these are Tri-axial shear test, direct shear test.

COHESION (C)
Cohesion can be defined as the property of soil or rock which quantifies how effectively it
opposes to being distorted or demolished by forces such as gravity due to its own weight.
Electrostatics forces in the inflexible compacted clays which are cementing due to Fe2O3,
CaCO3 and NaCl are the main causes of the true cohesion in case of a soil or rock, but the
apparent cohesion is caused because of pressure develops in pore and negative pressure in vein
that reply during inexperienced loading. Those ingredients which reinforce the cohesive forces
are given bellow:
Friction: this is one of factor which affects much on stability of slope
Movements of the materials can be prevented by man-made reinforcements.
Cementation of grains by the cementing materials like silica and calcite can solidify earth
materials in to strong rock

Basic concept of waste pile slope Stability:

Three principal stresses, namely, σ1, σ2 and σ3 are considered at any point in a saturated soil
mass. Slope materials have tendency to slide due to shearing stresses created in the soil by
gravitational and other forces like water flow, tectonic stresses, seismic activity, etc. This
tendency is resisted by the shear strength of slope materials expressed by Mohr Coulomb theory
as given below:
S= c+ σn tan φ
Where, S= Total shear strength of the soil.
c= Total cohesion of soil.
σn= Total Normal stress.
φ= Total angle of internal friction.
If there is pore water pressure, then effective shear resistance will be:
S′=c′+ (σn-u) tan φ′
Where S′=drained shear strength of the soil
c’=effective cohesion of the soil normal stress
σn= normal stress
u=pore water pressure
φ’=angle of internal friction in terms of effective stress

Practically all dump slope stability analyses are based on the concept of limit equilibrium. A
state of Limit equilibrium is assumed to exist when the shearing resistance along an assumed
failure surface equals the shear strength of the dump material or when factor of safety equals
unity. Figure below shows the geometry of dump slope failure where the different forces are
shown

There are various dump failure modes as shown in the figure below
Surface or edge slide occurs when materials moves down the slope. This mode of
failure is most likely to occur in end-dump embankments and is best evaluated by equations
describing the stability of an infinite slope. If sufficient water enters the slope and flows parallel
to the face, a shallow flow may occur. Base Failure usually occurs if the ground is inclined and
when the base ground is covered by a thin layer of weak dumping material. This failure mode
may occur both in layer placed embankments and end-dump. Block Translation will occur where
a dump is formed on inclined ground and the soil is relatively thin and weak. Most often high
water tables in the embankment, earthquakes or the decay of organic material beneath the dump
may induce such failure. Circular Failure occur if the dump is formed on a competent
foundation and the dump material contain a significant percentage of finer grain soil. It may
also develop through a deep foundation soil deposit of fin grained soils.
(A) Surface or edge slide, (B) Shallow flow slides, (C) Base failure, (D) Block
translation, (E) Circular arc failure, (F) Foundation circular failure.

Precaution taken for dump failures

a) A Cross section of the strata under the dumps showing thickness, fault planes
and geotechnical characteristics of strata including shear strength, angle of internal
friction of dump material.
b) An accurate mine plan showing all mine workings, previous landslides, springs, water
courses and other natural and other topographical features.
c) Plan and sections covering gradient of land, designed height, contour and boundaries of
the dumps.
d) The angle of slope of overburden dumps should be less than the angle of repose of the
materials and should not exceed 37.5 degree from the horizontal.
e) The dump height exceeding 30 m shall be benched in such a manner that no bench
exceeds 30 m in height and the general slope shall in no case exceed 1 vertical 1.5
horizontal.

Limit equilibrium analysis

In this method of Limit equilibrium method, it first defines a slip surface, then it analyses the slip
surface to obtain the factor of safety, which is defined as the ratio between forces (moments or
stresses) causing stability of the mass and those that resisting stability (disturbing forces).
Two-dimensional sections are normally analyzed assuming plain strain conditions. The
assumption for these methods is that the linear (Mohr-Coulomb) or non-linear relationships
between shear strength and the normal stress on the failure surface regulate the shear strengths of
the materials in the direction of the potential failure surface.
Functional slope design determines the critical slip surface where the factor of safety is found to
be of last value. Computer programs can also help locate failure surface using optimization
techniques. The program analyzes the stability of different layered slopes, different
embankments, and structures. Fast optimization of different slip surfaces (circular & non-circular
surfaces) gives the lowest factor of safety. External forces (Earthquake effects, external effects
by loading, groundwater conditions, and stabilization forces) can be included. The software uses
method of slices to decide the factor of safety.