Posted on 04/22/2013 12:52:47 PM PDT by dirtboy
ping
“...like most modern mines, Bingham has redundant sensor systems (radar, laser, seismic, GPS) that measure ground movement down to the millimeter and give plenty of warning...”
Well, in the U.S., Canada and similar places. China, Indonesia and Algeria probably not so much. If the environmentalists really cared about the environment, worker’s safety, etc. - they would allow more mines in the U.S.
Meanwhile back at Pocupine creek
I bet not many ants live in those mines.
There isn’t much of anything living near those mines.
A classic example of soil fluidization, were that not going into a pit it could have flowed out well over a mile or more. You see the same thing in some powder coating process’s where the material is suspended with air over a fluidized board.
@#$%^!!!! We gotta get this bulldozer running or Grandpa will lose the claim! Meanwhile down the creek, the Dakota Boys are all having withdrawal from the lack of morphine....
Shadow or not, "that pit" is responsible for 17% of US consumption of copper and 1% of total world consumption.
Australian, I believe.
Actually, angle of repose has little to do with establishing highwall angle. It’s more about rock strength and orientation of structure (faults, joints, etc.), and changing slope angle just a degree one way or the other can make a difference of millions of tons of stripping.
A slope engineer once told me that there are only two rules for determining slope angle. If it fails, it was too steep, and if it never fails, it wasn’t steep enough.
“The big open pit mines in Michigan are iron mines.”
My experience with open pit mining had to do with conveyor belt manufacturing...customers included Cleveland Clifts Empire Mine in Negaunee, MI and the Mesabi Range in MN - both iron ore operations. Btw, Cleveland Clifts has announced they are shutting down. Also supplied stuff to the Anaconda operations in AZ.
I knew she was a coal miners daughter, I could tell by the slack in her pants.
I actually spent 8 years in Salt Lake City “a long time ago” and could see the mine from where I lived, off in the distance.
Never did actually go on any sort of tour, and have no idea where they put the overburden ... but there’s got to be a lot of it.
You are correct that the general term angle-of-repose is more suited to earthen slope issues and the analysis is much more complex analysis of the entire mountainside.
I am not in the design field, but I do get to build what those on that side of the fence draw and plan and I wanted to make clear that this was not some sort of sluff of tailings — a cosmetic failure almost — instead the whole side of pit has failed.
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