Good, comprehensive ground control is vital to the initial construction and development, expansion, and ongoing operation of any underground mine in Canada.

A loss of ground control due to poor or inadequate geotechnical investigation can lead to failures. Whether these failures are catastrophic, mine-wide events or simply localized occurrences, they can have a significant and negative effect on the safety of workers in the mine, cause damage to vehicles and other mine equipment, and lead to serious delays, with the associated loss of production and compromised profitability, while repairs, reconstruction, and cleanup activities are in progress.

Successful, effective geotechnical investigation is heavily dependent on the gathering of accurate, comprehensive, and up to date information. This data can be obtained by several means. Initial investigation, i.e. prior to groundbreaking and the start of construction, mostly consists of the assessment of core samples and various types of scans if required and appropriate.

However, good geotechnical investigation doesn’t stop there; it needs to be practiced on an ongoing basis as the mine is developed and throughout its operational life-cycle.

One good way to continuously gather data for ongoing geotechnical investigation, which should form part of the overall safety and productivity management process of any underground mine in Canada, is the installation of a variety of geotechnical monitoring instruments in appropriate places within the mine, e.g. in the walls and roofs of tunnels, stopes, caverns, at working faces, in shafts etc.

The effectiveness and usefulness of high-quality monitoring instruments manufactured and supplied by MDT, e.g. extensometers (especially MPBX – multi-point borehole extensometers ), instrumented cable bolts, contractometers, ground movement monitors, sloughmeters, and others is maximized when information can be automatically obtained from them.

This can be achieved by connecting the instruments, via wireless nodes to a wireless mesh sensor network controlled by the Newtrax system, or to wireless nodes that will send the data to a tablet, installed with the MDT SMART app, as it comes within range. This option is especially suited to areas where there is no wireless mesh sensor network set up yet, or where it is impractical to do so for whatever reason.

Contact us now to find out more about how our products can be used for ongoing geotechnical investigation in all underground mines in Canada.

Geotechnical Investigation in Canada