Trigger criteria and production in Pilar Norte mine

Authors: Espíndola, J; Jorquiera, P; Romero, D; Rojas, C Download Paper

Cite As:
Espíndola, J, Jorquiera, P, Romero, D & Rojas, C 2024, 'Trigger criteria and production in Pilar Norte mine', in Daniel Johansson & Håkan Schunnesson (eds), MassMin 2024: Proceedings of the International Conference & Exhibition on Mass Mining, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, pp. 987-991.



Abstract:
Pilar Norte is one of the many mines in the El Teniente Copper deposit. Since its start of operation in 2010, and throughout its exploitation progress, it has not been exempting from Geomechanical issues, particularly large-scale rock bursts. The seismic monitoring conducted primarily involves the quantity of "shots" recorded by each seismic station, weighted, and limited by bands that compare the behavior of the last 7 days with the real-time records. For the past two years, this seismic monitoring has been complemented by comparing the production tonnage from blasting with the total tonnage in the sector. The results of this simple monitoring have been quite positive, as it has been observed how the response of the "weighted vibration" of the sectors immediately correlates with the extraction activities. This allows for an "alert" condition to be identified that deviates from the well-explained bands and is complemented by the seismic analyses conducted by the operational Geomechanics Unit.