MONITORING THE STABILITY OF SLOPES AND DUMPS

Open pit mine design seeks to optimize the safe and effective extraction of an orebody. Design assumptions and the stability of the excavated pit slopes are monitored to assess the performance of the slopes and the design. The measurement and evaluation of deformations of benches and slopes are indispensable for movement detection and geotechnical assessment, to enable proactive risk management and mitigation.

SYPERION’s monitoring system is the ideal solution for long-term campaign or strategic monitoring. The data is captured in absolute 3D-coordinates with point precision, accuracy and repeatability.

HORTS Mining Solutions delivers the robust technical infrastructure required to seamlessly integrate the system into even the most demanding mining environments. Built on decades of mining expertise, our companies combine proven know-how with a strong global track record. With more than 15 installations worldwide, our solutions are engineered for demanding 24/7 operation and have demonstrated reliable performance for over 30 years.

SYSTEM SET-UP

Mounted on a stable platform, the high-specification 3D laser scanner captures a complete data set of the entire pit every hour. This data set – known as a point cloud – provides full coverage of the monitored slope. The point cloud is automatically transformed into vertical (top view) and horizontal (scanner view) grids, represented by millions of GridPoints. Each GridPoint is continuously tracked over time, enabling precise analysis of even the smallest surface changes. Of these millions of GridPoints, hundreds of thousands remain exceptionally stable over time – with a standard deviation of less than 2 millimetres. These highly reliable reference points are called VirtualPrisms. Hundreds of VirtualPrisms can be configured in just minutes, delivering continuous, high-precision displacement monitoring – with no manual intervention in the pit required.

The pictures below shows the top view and the scanner view of a pit with the position of the laser scanner and its field of view. The purple position markers represent the VirtualPrisms.