Mitigation Cost Justification

Failure Mitigation Cost Justification: All open pit mines experience some sort of slope stability failure that requires a variance from the original mine plan...

In my experience the mitigation options usually boil down to three options: 

1) Go back to the top and start another layback, 

2) Clean up the muck and monitor, 

3) Leave a stepout/buttress and sterilize some ore. 

Other options like dewatering or specialty supports might exist too, either way, the Geotechnical Engineer can evaluate the stability and physicals for each of these options and do a cost analysis compared to design and evaluate over time to determine the best option.

The attached Spreadsheet Calculator is set up for metal mines (basically gold) but could be edited for any metal or commodity mine. One advantage to this tool is that you could have the Mining Unit Costs entered in advance of a problem and then quickly input the mitigation scenarios you understand are safe and quickly have a justified design recommendation that is useful for high level engineering and management.