Geological safety and optimisation in mining operations: towards a new understanding of fracture damage, heterogeneity and anisotropy.

采矿作业中的地质安全和优化：对断裂损伤、非均质性和各向异性的新认识。

• 批准号: NE/W00383X/1
• 负责人: Philip Benson
• 金额: $ 8.74万
• 依托单位: University of Portsmouth
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FW00383X%2F1
• 关键词: Geological; safety; optimisation; mining; operations

The current economic viability and longevity of open cast and underground mines that are extracting strategically important natural resources are limited in many areas by complex geology: faults, rock heterogeneities and discontinuities. This project has assembled an international team to integrate geological complexity, laboratory testing, and numerical modelling in order to develop better mapping and prospecting tools for minerals such as Copper and Lithium. Such resources are essential for the modern economy, which, as energy switches from fossil fuels to sustainable 'green' technologies, is increasingly reliant on high efficiency electric motors, 'smart' power grids, and batteries for energy supply and storage. As such, advanced motors and batteries rely on a suite of metals and minerals including Lithium (for batteries), Copper (for power transmission and motor windings), and Neodymium, used for high-power motors in space-critical applications ranging from hard-disk drives to electric vehicles. However, extracting such elements in an economically viable, safe, and sustainable manner remains challenging. Chile hosts some of the largest Copper mines in the world, where these metals are extracted using a range of methods from deep mines (up to nearly 2km depth) to large open pit designs. Similar operations exist - or are planned - for Lithium mining in other countries including Australia (Talison) and Canada (La Corne). Managing the rock 'mass' that hosts these (and other) minerals with the aim of extracting the ore in a sustainable and economic manner is the focus of all mining operations. Furthermore, with the continuing shift to electric power storage and transmission driving increased demand for Copper, Lithium and other resources, the requirement for optimal extraction is likely to become ever more important. However, large volumes of natural rock contain a plethora of natural fractures - or heterogeneities - that makes safe mineral extraction a challenge. This includes hidden faults in the rock mass, veins of low strength, and 'layers' of high strength rocks interbedded within the target zone. Taken together, these heterogeneities make the task of constructing a 3D representation of mine workings (needed for optimal extraction) very difficult, particularly as the overall efficiency of the mine requires steep slopes, yet these are more likely to be unstable when the various heterogeneities above are factored in. Importantly, may standard methods for estimating the stability of steep rock slopes, such as the well-known (but very simple) Factor-Of-Safety approach, cannot (by design) incorporate such heterogeneities.The aim of the GeoSafe project is to combine the expertise of the Rock Mechanics Laboratory at the University of Portsmouth and the School of Mining at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile into a new collaboration to better understand the mechanics and physics of heterogeneities across scales from centimeter to tens of metres. We will achieve this by co-developing new numerical models, calibrated by laboratory and field datasets, to understand how small scale (cm to meter) heterogeneities influence large-scale rock stability in both open-cast and underground mines. These new data and models will allow us to replace the standard Factor-of-Safety approach traditionally used to assess the stability of rock masses by a new risk-based numerical model (RBM) incorporating heterogeneities via a fractal-based scaling parameter. Ultimately, this will improve the safety (both physical and environmental) and the economic success of these operations, with particular emphasis on safely extracting the minerals needed in the global renewable energy economy.

开采具有重要战略意义的自然资源的露天矿和地下矿目前的经济可行性和寿命在许多地区受到复杂地质的限制：断层、岩石不均匀性和不连续性。该项目组建了一个国际团队，将地质复杂性、实验室测试和数值建模相结合，以开发更好的铜和锂等矿产测绘和勘探工具。这些资源对现代经济至关重要，随着能源从化石燃料转向可持续的“绿色”技术，现代经济越来越依赖于高效电动机、“智能”电网和电池来提供和储存能量。因此，先进的发动机和电池依赖于一系列金属和矿物，包括锂（用于电池），铜（用于电力传输和发动机绕组）和钕，用于从硬盘驱动器到电动汽车等空间关键型应用中的高功率发动机。然而，以经济上可行、安全和可持续的方式提取这些元素仍然具有挑战性。智利拥有一些世界上最大的铜矿，这些金属的提取使用一系列方法，从深井（深度近2公里）到大型露天矿设计。在其他国家，包括澳大利亚（Talison）和加拿大（La科尔内），锂矿开采也存在或计划进行类似的操作。管理这些（和其他）矿物所在的岩体，以可持续和经济的方式开采矿石，是所有采矿作业的重点。此外，随着向电力储存和传输的持续转变，对铜、锂和其他资源的需求不断增加，对最佳开采的要求可能变得越来越重要。然而，大量的天然岩石含有大量的天然裂缝或非均质性，这使得安全的矿物开采成为一项挑战。这包括岩体中的隐藏断层、低强度矿脉以及目标区域内夹层的高强度岩石“层”。总之，这些不均匀性使得构建矿井工作的3D表示（最佳提取所需）的任务非常困难，特别是当矿井的整体效率需要陡峭的斜坡时，然而当考虑到上述各种不均匀性时，这些更可能是不稳定的。重要的是，可以使用标准方法来评估陡峭岩石边坡的稳定性，例如众所周知的（但非常简单）安全系数方法，不能（设计）GeoSafe项目的目的是将朴茨茅斯大学岩石力学实验室和智利天主教大学采矿学院的专业知识联合收割机纳入一项新的合作，以更好地了解从厘米到几十米尺度的非均匀性力学和物理学。我们将通过共同开发新的数值模型来实现这一目标，该模型由实验室和现场数据集校准，以了解小尺度（厘米到米）的非均匀性如何影响露天和地下矿山的大规模岩石稳定性。这些新的数据和模型将使我们能够取代传统上用于评估岩体稳定性的标准安全系数方法，采用新的基于风险的数值模型（RBM），通过基于分形的尺度参数将非均匀性纳入其中。最终，这将提高这些业务的安全性（物理和环境）和经济成功，特别强调安全地提取全球可再生能源经济所需的矿物。

项目成果

Development of a geomechanical model based on suitable estimations of GSI and UCS in mining production slopes at the TilTil district, central Chile

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2023.105390
• 发表时间: 2023-07
• 期刊: International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences
• 影响因子: 7.2
• 作者: Félix Del Pozo;E. Córdova;C. Marquardt;Rodolfo Cabezas G;P. Benson;N. Koor;John Browning;Rocío Rudloff