Mining-induced seismic risk management in hardrock mines

Dr Johan Wesseloo, Australian Centre for Geomechanics

Mining Induced seismicity shares similarities with crustal seismicity and other types of induced seismicity which allows for some knowledge transfer.  However, the mechanisms of inducing seismicity in mining-induced seismicity differ in some respects to crustal seismicity and other types of induced seismicity.  These differences within the mining context result in different approaches to the management of seismic risk.

This talk will provide a basic overview of mining-induced seismicity, focussing on those aspects in which it differs from crustal seismology and other types of induced seismicity. A short overview of seismic risk management in hardrock mines will be provided, followed by a discussion of some interesting aspect influencing the short term and longer term seismic hazard in hard rock underground mines.

Biography

Dr Johan Wesseloo, Senior Research Fellow Rock Engineering / Project leader mXrap development, Australian Centre for Geomechanics

Johan has been involved in geotechnical engineering in the mining industry since 1998 with project experience that includes both underground and open pit environments. He obtained a BEng (Civil), MEng (Geotechnical) and PhD (Geotechnical) from The University of Pretoria, South Africa, and is Fellow of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Australasian Institute of mining and metallurgy. He started his career as a geotechnical engineer with SRK Consulting, South Africa, where he worked on open pit and underground projects in many different countries.

In 2007, Johan joined the ACG, where he led and completed the ACG’s High Resolution Seismic Monitoring in Open Pit Mines project. In 2009, he became the project leader of the ACG’s Mine Seismicity and Rockburst Risk Management project and has led the project to its completion in February 2015.  Mining-induced seismic research is continued in smaller projects under his leadership.

Johan has an interest in the rock engineering aspects of mine-induced seismicity and developed several procedures and methods for seismic analysis for rock engineering purposes and mining seismic hazard assessment methods, which are integrated into mXrap Apps. Johan has also contributed to the field of risk-based design in mining rock slope engineering and underground environments.