Summary

This review discusses rock slope stability at open pit mines. Links to books, online courses, computer codes and software are given, as well as several consulting companies with experience in rock slope stability issues. Fluid flow in jointed rock masses is also discussed.

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INTRODUCTION

My introduction to rock slope stability was Bomvu Ridge in Swaziland as I sat on a view point with Professor Jennings who was smoking his pipe and contemplating a solution to the instability of the mine's sideslopes. I was there to help understand the flow of water in the rock joints and hence predict the water pressure distribution. A quick search of the internet now tells me that early man was extracting specularite from the mine as long ago as 40,000 B.C., making it the oldest mine in the world.

My most recent encounter with rock slope stability was in New Mexico last year. If you approach Chaco Canyon from the south along the route used for over a thousand years, you see the cliffs stretch from one horizon to the other. Only directly in front of you there is a break, a gash dominated by a towering mesa. Gingerly, for the site inspires awe, you round the mesa and quietly enter the still valley. Proceed a short way up to the main building; perhaps this was the palace, or the temple, or merely the granary of the vast empire that was ruled from this site for over 400 years. Regardless of its longevity and grandeur, in the early 1900s the rock slope behind the structure failed and obliterated about a third of the building. Today the rubble of the failure makes a good viewing point.