The influence of mining sequence and ground support practice on the frequency and severity of rockbursts in seismically active mines of the Sudbury Basin

Abstract

The performance of ground support systems under dynamic loading is typically assessed in a qualitative and subjective manner. As a result, it is difficult to develop an explicit knowledge on the mechanisms of action and interaction of support elements subjected to rockbursts. This paper examines rockbursts that have occurred at Creighton, Copper Cliff, and Coleman mines since 2000, 2004, and 2006, respectively. The mines are located in the Sudbury Basin, in Ontario, Canada. The majority of pertinent information was obtained through on-site field assessments, seismic system records, and numerical elastic stress modelling. Passive monitoring is used to link the evolution of the frequency and severity of rockbursts to the evolution of mining and support practice at the three mine sites. Based on the collected data, ground support elements that enhanced the capacity of support systems to withstand dynamic loads are identified. rockburst, ground support systems, passive monitoring.

Numerical Modeling of Complex Stress State in a Fault Damage Zone and Its Implication on Near‐Fault Seismic Activity

“…Induced seismicity taking place in deep underground mines has been intensively studied over the past decades (Beer et al., 2017; Bischoff et al., 2010; Castro et al., 2009; Fritschen, 2010; Gay, 1983; Hofmann & Scheepers, 2011; Holub, 1996; Lasocki & Olszewska, 2017; Leptokaropoulos et al., 2017; Lu et al., 2018, 2019; Ma et al., 2018b; Malek et al., 2008; McGarr, 2001; Mikula, 2002; Ortlepp, 1992; Pritchard & Hedley, 1993; Sainoki & Mitri, 2014a; Snelling et al., 2013; Swanson, 1992; Trifu & Urbancic, 1996; Urbancic & Trifu, 1998; White & Whyatt, 1999) as it is deeply related to the occurrence of rockbursts that could inflict devastating damage to underground facilities (Blake & Hedley, 2003; Directorate, 1996; Durrheim et al., 1998; Hedley, 1992; Holub et al., 2011; Ledwaba & Scheepers, 2012; Manouchehrian & Cai, 2018; Morissette et al., 2017; Pritchard & Hedley, 1993; White et al., 2002), although not all seismic events cause violent rock mass failure entailing rock ejection with high velocity. Importantly, the location, frequency, and source parameters of seismic events provide mining engineers with valuable information (J. P. Liu, et al., 2019; Ma et al., 2018a; Tierney & Morkel, 2017; Wang et al., 2019).…”

“…Without mining activity, no seismic events would take place, given that variations in tectonic stresses are infinitesimal. However, field observations suggest that mining‐induced stress change should not be the sole dominant factor that controls the occurrence of seismic events because source locations of induced seismicity are not uniformly distributed around mine openings whilst irregularly forming several clusters with different geometries (Dineva & Boskovic, 2017; Kozłowska et al., 2016; Ma et al., 2019b; Mgumbwa et al., 2017; Morissette et al., 2017; Santis et al., 2019; Smith, 2018). Accordingly, the density of seismic events does not necessarily correlate with the distance from the mine opening, that is, its relation with the magnitude of mining‐induced stress change is frequently ambiguous (Ma et al., 2019b; Smith, 2018).…”

“…These results imply that the proposed method may be used to obtain a first-order approximation of the complex rock mass stress state in fault damage zones and to evaluate the severity of seismic activity. Hedley, 1992;Holub et al, 2011;Ledwaba & Scheepers, 2012;Manouchehrian & Cai, 2018;Morissette et al, 2017;Pritchard & Hedley, 1993;White et al, 2002), although not all seismic events cause violent rock mass failure entailing rock ejection with high velocity. Importantly, the location, frequency, and source parameters of seismic events provide mining engineers with valuable information (J. P. Liu, et al, 2019;Ma et al, 2018a;Tierney & Morkel, 2017;Wang et al, 2019).…”

Microseismic monitoring of rockbursts with the ensemble Kalman filter

“…Because mining hazards increase with depth due to higher in situ stress levels, efforts must be deployed to better characterize and quantify the associated risks (Ranjith et al ., 2017). Sudden and violent releases of energy stored in rock masses, known as rockbursts, are one of the biggest threats in underground mining operations (Morissette, 2017). The occurrence of catastrophic failures causes not only the obstruction of mining operations, or damages to the equipment, but even worst, it threatens the safety of underground workers (Ge, 2005).…”

A review of mining practices for surface support: an international survey

“…Potvin & Wesseloo (2013) highlight issues of design indeterminacy and note the need for a better understanding of dynamic demand on ground support systems. A review of failure events for seismically active mines shows a need to develop new ground support guidelines for deep underground mines (Morissette et al 2017). For underground mines, the cost of ground support is considerable, and reducing it can help mines reduce their operating costs.…”