Harmony Gold: The impact of mining rate on seismicity

Aim

Historically deep level gold mines have adapted their mining plan as one of the tools to manage seismic activity. This adaptation included reducing the number of working panels in a specific area, alternating blasting between adjacent panels or even stopping mining in some areas completely. Intuitively, it was assumed that since advancing faces induce stress changes ahead of the face which drives the seismic response of the rock mass. However, attempts to derive optimum mining plans have been unsuccessful to date. The Harmony Chair is involved in the development / adaptation of a software code that currently appears able to indicate different levels of energy available for seismic release if mining rates or mining sequences are changed.  

Progress

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Plan

The research work planned for the next year includes the correlation of the modelled predictions with actual seismic responses recorded in specifically selected sites and the extension of this into validation of the software by applying it in a number of completely different environments.