Improving seismic risk characterisation and management in underground mines

采矿业正在开采更深的矿体，并采用高提取率，以获得利润和竞争力。在这方面，采矿引起的地震活动正变得越来越具有挑战性，因为它对采矿人员的安全以及对深部采矿作业的生产力和经济可行性构成重大威胁。 拟议的研究计划旨在推进地下矿山地震风险表征和管理的知识和实践状况。地震危险性受地震危险性水平、矿井开挖的易损性和矿井工人暴露程度的影响。实际上，地震危险性被定义为在地震事件群中可能发生的最大地震事件。这项研究的重点将是更好地了解较大规模的矿山和较小规模的工作场所的地震危险趋势和模式。该提案涉及制定地震数据分组方法，以便能够更精确地描述地震危险性，并改进时间和空间上的跟踪。其目的是将地震活动群中确定的地震危险性水平与采矿引起的应力水平、岩体性质和结构地质的变化相关联。此外，集群之间的强地震响应的时间模式将进行调查，目的是提高我们的理解，在采矿产生大规模地震事件的大规模机制。 矿山爆破是矿山地震活动的重要触发因素，通常会导致地震危险性增加。在实践中，通过特定地点的排除和重返程序来管理这些期间的采矿人员的接触。这些措施包括确定非进入范围和期限，以涵盖预期的高地震危险期。拟议的研究还涉及制定一种方法，以评估排除和重返程序的可靠性，并确定爆破后的地震危险程度。这具有重要的影响，特别是在地雷开发过程中，因为这会导致地雷工作人员直接暴露在没有支持的地面上。将开发的工具将具有实际意义，例如优化专用采矿设备在已确定的地震危险性较高地区的配置。 拟议的研究将与采矿业合作进行，其最终应用将直接改善地下矿山的地震风险管理和安全。这些结果将对目前的做法提出挑战，因为目前的做法往往需要对过去的失败进行反应性法医审查，以调整采矿计划。岩石力学领域高素质人才的培训将满足该行业目前的需求，该行业正在努力吸引和留住这些专家。

The mining industry is exploiting deeper orebodies and employing high extraction ratios in order be profitable and competitive. In this context, mining-induced seismicity is becoming increasingly challenging as it poses a significant threat to the safety of mine personnel and to the productivity and economic viability of deep mining operations. The proposed research program aims at advancing the state of knowledge and practice on seismic risk characterisation and management in underground mines. The seismic risk is influenced by the level of seismic hazard, the vulnerability of mine excavations, and the exposure of mine workers. In practice, seismic hazard is defined as the largest seismic event susceptible of occurring within a seismic event population. This research will focus on developing a better understanding of both the larger mine-scale and smaller workplace-scale trends and patterns in seismic hazard. The proposal involves developing a seismic data clustering methodology that would allow for a refined seismic hazard characterization and improved tracking over time and space. The objective is to correlate the level of seismic hazard identified in seismicity clusters with changes in mining-induced stress levels, rock mass properties, and structural geology. Furthermore, temporal patterns in strong seismic responses amongst clusters will be investigated with the objective of improving our understanding of the larger-scale mechanisms involved in generating large magnitude seismic events in mining. Mine blasts are important triggers of mine seismicity, and typically result in periods of increased seismic hazard. In practice, the exposure of mine personnel during these periods is managed through site-specific exclusion and re-entry procedures. These consist in establishing non-entry perimeters and durations to cover periods of anticipated high seismic hazard. The proposed research further involves developing a methodology for assessing the reliability of exclusion and re-entry procedures and characterizing the level of seismic hazard following blasting periods. This has important implications, particularly in the mine development process, which leads to direct exposure of mine personnel to unsupported grounds. The tools that will be developed will have practical implications, such as optimizing the allocation of specialized mining equipment into identified areas of elevated seismic hazard. The proposed research will be conducted in partnership with the mining industry and its resulting applications will aim at directly improving seismic risk management and safety in underground mines. The outcomes will challenge the current state of practice that often requires reactive forensic reviews of past failures in order to adapt mining plans. The training of highly qualified personnel in the field of rock mechanics will address the current needs of the industry, which is deploying important efforts in attracting and retaining these specialists.