Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design

Dr. Read has over 40 years experience as a practitioner and consultant in the mining industry, with special interests and expertise in rock slope stability. In 1990 Dr Read began his own geotechnical engineering practice. Since then he has specialised in slope stability and open pit mine slope design and investigation tasks in Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Canada, South Africa, and Zambia. From 1994 to 2004 he was Deputy Chief of CSIRO Exploration & Mining and Executive Manager of the Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies, Brisbane. Peter Stacey has accumulated over 45 years of international experience in the geotechnical aspects of open pits, including slope design and implementation, as well as project management. He holds a B.Sc. Hons. degree in Geology, a D.I.C. from Imperial College, London, and is a registered engineer in Canada and the UK. After working for the Geological Survey of Sweden and subsequently with the Iron Ore Company of Canada as Supervisor – Geotechnical Engineering, Mr Stacey joined Golder Associates Ltd., based in Vancouver, Canada. During his 29 years with Golder, Mr Stacey worked primarily in the areas of pit slope design and the application of geotechnical engineering to the operational aspects of open pit mines around the world.In 2003, Mr Stacey formed Stacey Mining Geotechnical Ltd. to concentrate on independent review consulting. In this capacity, he is currently engaged in performing geotechnical reviews for a number of international mining and consulting companies, and is a member of Geotechnical Review Boards for several large open pit operations. In addition, he leads courses in pit slope design and implementation.

• 1. Fundamentals of slope design 2. Field data collection 3. Geological model 4. Structural model 5. Rock mass model 6. Hydrogeological model 7. Geotechnical model 8. Data uncertainty 9. Acceptance criteria 10. Slope design methods 11. Design implementation 12. Performance assessment and monitoring 13. Risk management 14. Open pit closure Appendices 1: Groundwater data collection 2: Essential statistical and probability theory 3: Influence of in situ stresses on open pit design 4: Risk management: geotechnical hazard checklists 5: Example regulations for open pit closure.

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