Today, mines are being planned to reach depths of more than 1,100 meters, waste rock embankments have surpassed 600 meters in height, tailings dams have reached heights of 200 meters, and heap leach facilities have topped 150 meters. The push toward higher, deeper, and steeper, along with the larger and more productive equipment in use today, continues to test our tools and capabilities.

Slope Stability in Surface Mining documents the progressive rise in technical understanding and sophistication in the field. Only be continuously collecting and exchanging information can design concepts, construction methods, monitoring strategies, and reclamation practices keep pace with the times.

Slope Stability in Surface Mining creates a common platform on which to base correct, economical, and safe slope design and construction decisions.

Reviews: The book emphasizes the stability of the rock slope itself in open-pit or strip mines, but also considers the stability of waste rock embankments, tailings dams, and heap leach facilities. Among the 49 topics are failure mechanisms for high slopes in hard rock, the Sur Sur Mine of Codelco's Andina Division, assessing embankment parameters, and managing tailings basin water. Invited papers are presented in four sections:

Rock slope design considerations; case studies in rock slope stability; stability of waste embankments; and tailings and heap leaching. Design considerations include the use of geological structure data, rock mass properties, finite difference codes, blast timing and presplitting as well as analysis of failure mechanisms, time-dependent movements, the role of groundwater and the influence of seismic events; also slope height versus slope angle and a coupled geomechanical-hydrological approach based on finite elements. Case studies are presented of Chuquicamata, La escondida, Collahuasi and Sur Sur in Chile, Palabora in South Africa, Aznalcollar in Spain, Aitik in Sweden, Betze-Post in Neveda, Orapa in Botswana, Main Cresson in Colorado, the mine of the Kola Peninsula in Russia, an overburden embankment at Grasberg in Indonesia, rock disposal in Elkview in British Columbia and at Idaho phosphate mines, soil slopes at Jim Bridger in Wyoming, dam failures in South Africa, tailings torages at Golden Ridge in Western Australia, the Cresson Vlley leach facility and secondary heap leaching at radomiro Tomic in Chile.

Other topics include tailings basin water management, waste rock dumps over tailings in high-seismicity area, and the influence of the direction of ore placement on the stability of heaps on geomembrane-lined pads. IMM Abstracts June 2001 Vol 51, No 3