Geobrugg, Moscow, Russia:

A. Yu. Barinov, CEO, Candidate of Geographical Sciences

College of Mining, NUST MISIS, Moscow, Russia:
V. A. Eremenko, Director of Research Center for Applied Geomechanics and Convergent Technologies in Mining, Professor, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, prof.eremenko@gmail.com

Polyus Project, Krasnoyarsk, Russia:
V. K. Bushkov, Head of Laboratory, Candidate of Engineering Sciences

An open pit mine project is to ensure elimination of rock falls hazardous for personnel and infrastructure. At the project stage, angles of slopes and dimensions of berms are designed so that to secure transportation routes and working zone in an open pit. On the other hand, in the course of mining, unwanted local gravitational processes can take place (e.g., landslides, rock falls, rock slides, erosion), which are impossible to calculate at the design stage. As a consequence, engineering protection is often required to be undertaken. Experts from Geobrugg and Research Center for Applied Geomechanics and Convergent Technologies in Mining at the NUST MISIS’ College of Mining have jointly performed the review and typification of the modern protection engineering structures based on nailing and high-strength steel mesh reinforcement, as well as developed the block flow charts for mining engineers for rational design of engineering protection using high-tension steel wire meshes. This article offers a brief description of the structures, general guides and selection procedures. The work on typification and decision-making depending on the man-made impact at a specific site were divided into two major stages: the problem analysis/data mining and the reinforcement design. It is worthy of mentioning that the selected design may not embrace all engineering and organizational aspects (pit wall life span, the ‘need-to-reinforce’ factor of a specific site, etc.), which may influence the reinforcement decision-making. Therefore, it s required to undertake an additional analysis of the expedience of a selected reinforcement technique for each site in order to scrutinize activities which are beyond the scope of this study. The modern geotechnical systems suggest a wide range of technologies to protect open pit mines from rock falls and landslides. Many designers provide both off-the-shelf, tested and internationallevel certified structures, and free access to specialized programs for calculation of the parameters and selection of a desired specification out of the existing range. Mine engineers can use the diagram presented in this article for an optimized design depending on the problem being solved, calculate the wanted parameters and address manufactures to get a detail specification for the structure assembly. In this case, the problem of safe and failure-free mining is greatly simplified owing to efficient application of engineering reinforcement systems.

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