Interpreting displacement data from complementary slope monitoring systems in extreme weather conditions

CIM Journal Preprints, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2020

R. Yost, M. Sharp, and S. Ducharme-Rivest
Teck Resources Ltd., Sparwood, British Columbia, Canada

As costs decrease for displacement monitoring radar units, open pit operations increasingly incorporate multiple monitoring systems to track displacement of pit walls. At the Teck Resources Ltd. steelmaking coal operations in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, a common practice is to couple a radar system with the installation of survey prisms. The two systems work in different ways and provide more continuous monitoring of displacement when one system is adversely affected the punishing weather conditions at the mining operations. While there are circumstances when results from one system can be discounted, there are often instances when results from either system cannot be ignored even though they are suspect. This paper presents a methodology to evaluate results in such circumstances. It links the monitoring system status, pit wall displacement trends, perceived risk, and recommended course of action in a manner that addresses the uncertainty of results from one or both systems.