ROCKBURST AND SEISMIC ACTIVITY IN UNDERGROUND AUSTRALIAN MINES AN INTRODUCTION TO A NEW RESEARCH PROJECT

Yves Potvin1, Marty Hudyma1, and Richard J. Jewell1

ABSTRACT Seismicity and rockbursts have been reported in Australian mines since the early 1900s. The first modern seismic monitoring system was installed in an Australian mine in 1994. In the last few years, rockbursts and mine seismicity have become a serious mine safety issue and a constraint to economic viability in several Australian mines. By the end of 1999, there will be at least 14 seismic monitoring systems installed in Australian mines. The Australian Centre for Geomechanics (ACG) has undertaken a project entitled Mine Seismicity and Rockburst Risk Management. With the support of several of Australias largest mining companies, the project aims to address the rockburst and mine seismicity issue in Australian mines by better defining the nature and extent of the problem and by developing risk analysis tools to quantify the hazards associated with rockbursts and mine seismicity. This paper provides an introduction to rockbursting and the research undertaken in this area to date, outlines the current extent of the problem in Australia, and introduces the objectives of the new rockburst research project at the ACG. INTRODUCTION Rockbursts have been associated with numerous accidents and fatalities in South African, Central European and North and South American mines. Wagner (1982) wrote that Rockbursts are the most serious and least understood problem facing deep mining operations all around the world. Brady (1990) later commented the pervasiveness of rockbursts suggests that they remain the major unresolved ground control problem in underground mining. Despite significant research and progress in the last two decades, the problem is still not well understood. With more and deeper Australian mines, high stress conditions and rockbursts are becoming more common. BACKGROUND Distinction between seismic events and rockbursts A seismic event is a transient vibration or stress wave caused by an inelastic deformation in a rock mass. The deformation may be in the form of physical displacement, intact rock cracking or rockmass degradation. Seismic events are a normal response of a rock mass to stress readjustments near an excavation. Rockbursts are usually defined as seismic events that cause significant physical damage to excavations. Damage can vary in intensity from minor rock spalling to catastrophic rock mass fracturing. The dynamic nature of rockburst damage means that there is the potential for extensive damage to or complete destruction of supported and unsupported underground excavations.

Australian Centre for Geomechanics, 7 Cooper Street, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009

Rockbursts and Mine Seismicity in Australia Mine seismicity and rockbursts in Australia have been reported as early as the turn of the century. Large seismic events and rockbursts with related injuries and fatalities were reported in the Golden Mile underground workings in Kalgoorlie (Kalgoorlie Miner, 1917). Rauert and Tully (1998) and Mikula and Poplawski (1995), report that mine seismicity was experienced at Broken Hill and Mount Charlotte during (and following) the mid 1960s. In 1994, the first modern, commercial seismic monitoring system in Australia was installed at Mount Charlotte. MIM commissioned a seismic system in the Deep Copper Mine in 1994, followed by installations at Pasminco Broken Hill in 1996, and Northparkes in 1996. The operators at Northparkes were not expecting a rockburst problem, but rather, installed the microseismic system to monitor the initiation and propagation of block caving. Duplancic and Brady (1999) used data from this seismic monitoring system installation to create a conceptual model of the caving process. Despite having large open stopes to a depth of 1400 metres, the Deep Copper Mine at Mount Isa has not yet experienced significant mine seismicity. This is primarily due to a locally low stresses, the relatively soft ore and rock mass, and a mining sequence that minimises the formation of stressed pillars. The mine seismicity recorded to date has been associated with fault related movements in stope crowns. Rauert and Tully (1998) describe the Southern Cross area of the Broken Hill mine as having one of the highest occurrences of microseismic activity recorded in the Australian Mining Industry. In less than two years of seismic monitoring, more than 6000 events have been recorded, albeit many of these are small microseismic events. They have found the microseismic monitoring system to be a useful tool in day to day mine safety management and mine design. Since 1970, records from the Australian regional seismograph network show the Mount Charlotte Mine near Kalgoorlie to be the source of 16 mining induced seismic events of a Richter magnitude 2.0 or greater (Mikula, 1998). Mount Charlotte has experienced the most severe seismic activity in Australian mines to date and most of the pioneering work in Australia on the use of seismic monitoring systems and managing the risk associated with a seismically active mine has been conducted there. Poplawski (1997) performed some advanced seismic parameter analyses at Mount Charlotte, which contributed towards better understanding the seismic response to mining. Since 1997, with a significant increase in rockbursts and mine seismicity, seismic monitoring systems being installed at several Western Australian mines, including Forrestanias (now Viceroy Resource Corporation) Bounty mine; at WMCs Long Shaft, Otter, Victor and Junction mines; and KCGMs Super Pit. Recently, seismic monitoring systems have been installed at Homestakes Darlot mine and New Hamptons Big Bell operation. What are the Conditions Causing the Rockburst Problem Stress Conditions High stress is one of the primary causes of rockbursts in mines. High stress conditions are typically a combination of the natural pre-mining in-situ stress and stress changes induced by mining. The pre-mining stresses measured in Western Australia are often high. The ratio of maximum principal in-situ stress (generally horizontal) to minimum principal in-situ stress has been measured near 3:1 in numerous locations (Lee, 1998). Consequently, many WA mines are encountering high stress related ground conditions at only 300 to 400 metres depth. Mining induced stress changes further exacerbate the unfavourable in-situ stress conditions. Excavations in rock induce stress concentrations and stress relief, creating biaxial or near uniaxial loading conditions near openings. This reduction in confining stresses can initiate rock mass degradation and brittle failure of intact rock. Depending on the nature of the loading system and the properties of the rock, failure may occur in a stable yielding manner, or in an unstable dynamic manner. Both stable and unstable failure conditions result in energy release and the generation of seismicity. However, it is unstable failure that has the greater potential to release significant energy release, causing large seismic events and potentially, rockbursts. Geological Discontinuities Abnormal stress conditions are rarely the unique cause of unstable failure and rockbursts. Geological discontinuities often play an equally important role. Many types of geological discontinuities including faults, shear zones, joints or bedding, and local variations in rock stiffness contribute to mine seismicity and

rockbursting. In reality, geological discontinuities play a dominant role in the deformation and failure of a rock mass under load. The location, continuity, orientation and material properties of the geological features are significant factors in rock mass failure, and these characteristic dictate how energy is stored and released in a deforming rock mass. It is important to note that while geological features play a role in the release of energy and the generation of seismicity, rockburst damage may not be coincident with the location or source of a seismic event. Dynamic stress waves created by the unstable failure are often blamed for causing rockburst damage to nearby mine workings. Kaiser (1994) discussed some of the damage that can be caused by seismic events. These include: rock fracturing, resulting in rock bulking and possibly rock ejection, kinematic rock ejection due to seismic energy transfer, and structurally controlled gravity failure initiated by a seismic event. Why is Rockbursting an Important Issue In Underground Mining In the three years 1996 to 1998, three fatalities in WA underground mines occurred as a result of falls of ground potentially associated with large seismic events (WA Department of Mines and Energy online database). In addition, rockburst related damage and falls of ground are responsible for: lost time injuries, workforce near misses, equipment damage, substantial production delays and losses, and costly rehabilitation programs. Clearly, in rockburst prone and seismically active ground conditions, rockbursts are a risk to the safety of the underground workforce. The economic consequences of rockbursts are also significant. The consequences of rockbursts (injuries, equipment damage, production losses etc) can have a direct effect on the viability of mining operations. However, proactive measures undertaken to minimise the consequences of rockbursts can also be very expensive. These include: introducing new equipment to the mine, such as tele-remote loaders, or one pass rockbolters, increasing the amount of ground support and rock reinforcement, introducing new types of ground support such as fibrecrete or cone bolts, and implementing systems to minimise the exposure of the workforce to the rockburst risk, such as preventing the workforce from entering parts of or the entire mine following mine blasts. While proactive measures are effective in reducing the risk of rockbursts to the workforce, introducing unnecessary preventative measures impacts the economic viability of the mine. Many mining operations in Western Australia are going deeper underground as near surface ore reserves are exhausted. It is a reasonable expectation that higher stress conditions will be encountered deeper below the surface. As mines go deeper and more excavations are created, the stress conditions and consequently, the conditions conducive to mine seismicity are likely to increase. ROCKBURST RESEARCH A Brief History of Rockburst Research For decades, rockbursts have been associated with a large number of fatalities in South African, Central European and North and South American mines. As a result, rockbursts have been a major topic of research for more than three decades in North America and South Africa. As noted by Hedley (1992), microseismicity was discovered by accident in the late 1930s during experiments with the measurement of shock wave propagation in an underground mine. It was later realised that by capturing the shockwaves resulting from mine seismicity, there was an opportunity to locate and measure the magnitude of mine induced seismic events. The first microseismic monitoring system was installed in the 1960s in a South African gold mine (Cook, 1964), and another later in Idaho in the US (Blake and Leighton, 1970). The first commercial microseismic monitoring system, the Electrolab MP-250, became available in the late 1970s (Mallot, 1981). These were installed in several US and Canadian mines (MacDonald and Muppalaneni 1983, Davidge 1984, Neuman 1985, Oliver and MacDonald 1985). These

systems operated as black boxes, with automatic data processing, and provided only approximate locations and magnitudes of seismic events. Research efforts in the 1980s in North America and South Africa focussed on the development of new hardware and software to efficiently record and process the full waveforms of seismic events. As a result of this research, two sophisticated South African seismic systems, the ISS (de Kock and Mountfort 1998) and PSS/PRISM (Adams et. al. 1994) and one Canadian system, the ESG/Hyperion (Urbancic 1998) were designed to operate in mining conditions. These systems are now available commercially, and are widely used in the mining industry. The precision in estimating event location and magnitude has improved dramatically. In addition, the application of sophisticated seismological analyses to study the mechanisms of seismic events has been made possible by the new technology (Young et. al. 1989, Gibowicz 1990, Mendecki 1993). In the 1990s, research concentrated mainly on data analysis, while refining the seismic systems hardware and software. The research direction in South Africa has been aimed towards rockburst prediction and alarm systems at the mine face (Mendecki, 1995). On the other hand, the Canadian Rockburst Research Project (CAMIRO, 1995) attempted to gain further understanding of the factors which generate seismicity and rockbursts in order to control the damage caused by these events, and to minimise their effect on mining. This variance in philosophy can be explained largely by the cultural differences between the two countries, and by the differences in geological settings and mining methods. Ortlepp (1998) estimated that the South Africans have spent the equivalent of $A15M per annum over the last few decades on the rockburst problem. The Canadian Rockburst Research projects (Hedley 1992, CAMIRO 1995) were funded to a total of $A10M over the last 10 years. The total Canadian expenditure on rockburst research during this period could easily exceed $A30M, if one included the purchase, installation and monitoring of microseismic systems at operating mines. Reports of rockbursts and mine seismicity in Australian mines has increased in the last few years. By the end of 1999, there will be at least 14 mines with seismic monitoring systems in Australia, with a total hardware cost in excess of $A2M. While the state-of-the-art technology can be purchased from South Africa and Canada, the Australian mining industry needs to develop local experience in the application of the technology to the unique Australian geological and mining environments. The proliferation of microseismic monitoring equipment in Australian mines will provide an extraordinary opportunity to study the rockburst phenomenon in local mining conditions. Mine Seismicity and Rockburst Risk Management Project In 1998, the Australian Centre for Geomechanics (ACG) solicited support for a project that would help Australian mines deal with rockburst problems being encountered. Support for the project was initially received from WMC Resources Limited, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, Homestake Australia, and Sons of Gwalia Limited. The project is also financially supported by MERIWA (Minerals & Energy Research Institute of Western Australia). The project started in July 1999, with the hiring of a full time project leader. In September 1999, two PhD students were recruited for the Mine Seismicity and Rockburst Risk Management (MSRRM) project. Two more PhD students were added to the project in July 2000. This project is seen to be multidisciplinary and the research team is comprised of a mix of geologists, seismologists, rock mechanics engineers, and mining engineers. The project leader is a rock mechanics engineer and the PhD students are being drawn from suitable candidates from the full range of disciplines. A number of different academic staff will provide expertise directly to the project and through the cosupervision of PhD students, while an advisory panel or steering committee has been established incorporating personnel with the required range of expertise from around the world. The objective will be to utilise these personnel to keep the project on track and to expedite access to the outcome of previous work. The goal of the MSRRM project is to advance the responsible application of seismic monitoring systems and deliver strategies to quantify and mitigate the risk of mine seismicity and rockbursting. There are three distinct steps in this goal. The first step is to optimise the use of microseismic monitoring technology in Australia. This involves applying data analysis techniques and methodologies developed overseas and accelerating the application of seismological analyses in Australian mines. Another important component is to help mine-based seismic monitoring personnel to fine-tune their seismic systems. Microseismic monitoring systems are similar to automobiles in that they need routine adjustment and tuning to perform optimally. If a seismic system is not

periodically tuned for the seismicity occurring in a mine, the system will provide less data or less useful data, and ultimately less valuable information. The second step is to develop a local understanding of the mine seismicity and rockbursting occurring in Australian mines. Detailed seismic data analysis is time consuming and mine site personnel often do not have the time and resources to undertake these analyses. In addition, the Australian geological and mining environments tend to be small and three dimensional in geometry - generally quite different from the environments encountered in many of the overseas mines. Consequently, the key seismic parameters for understanding rockbursting in Australia, or the application of these parameters may be different from those used overseas. To best understand local rockbursting and mine seismicity, existing parameters will have to be applied in new ways, or new parameters developed. Ultimately, a comprehensive understanding of the local sources of mine seismicity is needed before effective risk analyses and risk mitigation strategies can be developed. The final step is to develop the link between rockbursting, seismic monitoring, risk assessment and better mining decisions. Components of this work involve hazard identification, risk assessment and quantification and risk management tools. When the geological and stress conditions that are conducive to rockbursting and mine seismicity are understood, the most appropriate risk mitigation techniques can be identified. These techniques may include: improved ground support systems, changes to blasting practices, or mining method modifications. It is understood that the overall objectives are challenging and it is unlikely that all will be completely achieved. Nevertheless, it is important that they are addressed. It is expected that the comprehensive, multidisciplinary nature of the research team will enable them to make significant progress towards achieving the objectives. SUMMARY The incidence of rockbursting in Australia is likely to worsen as mines go deeper and encounter higher stresses. State-of-the-art microseismic monitoring technologies can provide new insights into the mechanisms of rockbursts and mine seismicity. However, successfully applying the new technology in Australian mining conditions is a complex task. The Australian Centre for Geomechanics has initiated a project to improve our understanding of these issues and accelerate the application of seismic monitoring in mines. This Mine Seismicity and Rockburst Risk Management project will help Australian mining companies to maximise the benefit from their investment in microseismic monitoring. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors acknowledge the financial support from WMC Resources Ltd., Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, Homestake Australia, Sons of Gwalia Limited and the Minerals & Energy Research Institute of Western Australia. REFERENCES Adams, D.J., Hemp, D.A. and Gurtunca R.G. (1994). A Seismic System as a Tool in Rock Engineering. Proc. International Workshop on Applied Rockburst Research , Santiago, pp. 89-100. Blake, W. (1982). Microseismic Application for Mining A practical Guide, Mining Research Contract Report #J0215002, USBM. Brady, B.G.H. (1990). Preface of Rockbursts and Seismicity in Mines. Minneapolis, A.A. Balkema. CAMIRO (1995). Canadian Rockburst Research Program 1990-1995. Vol 1-6, CAMIRO Mining Division, Sudbury, Canada. Cook, N.G.W. (1964). The Application of Seismic Techniques to problems in Rock Mechanics. International Journal Rock Mechanics and Mining Science, Vol. 1, no 2, pp.169-180. Davidge, G.R. (1984). Microseismic Monitoring at Falconbridge Mine, Falconbridge Ontario. CIM Bulletin, Vol. 77, no 868, pp.45-59 De Kock, E. and Mountfort, P. (1998). The Integrated Seismic System, in Mine Seismicity and Rockburst Risk management in U/G Mines. Australian Centre for Geomechanics Workshop, Notes Section 13, Perth, Australia.

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