Geomechanics and the Stone Mining Industry: Where Do We Go From Here?

ABSTRACT: For over 20 years RESPEC has been providing geomechanical services in the stone mining industry. Our experience has shown that the conventional view of stone mine rock mechanics as “simple” or “straight forward” is inaccurate. The geomechanical methods used to assess, monitor, and forecast ground behavior in stone mines are based on a limited amount of stone-specific research and rock mechanics principles developed for other types of hard-rock mines (e.g., deep metals operations). Furthermore, few new stone mines are being developed in the United States, so new production capacity is continually being developed in mines that are several decades to over 100 years old. The recent surge in major collapses at stone mines has underscored the need for the rock mechanics community to re-assess our conventional wisdom with respect to stone mining and re-energize the research community around stone-specific ground control phenomena. During the talk we will share some of our experience in numerical modeling, monitoring, and laboratory testing for stone mine geomechanical analysis. Our goal is to foster a deep discussion about the state of the art in stone rock mechanics and how miners, consultants, and researchers can collaborate to improve it.