Monitoring an Intake Vent Shaft to Maintain Safe Operations

In this 30-min webinar Linda Snyman, Senior Operations Geotechnical Engineer, CMOC Northparkes Mines, describes how they conduct annual scans of a 560 m intake vent and conduct change detection analysis to assess the rate of self-mining.

CMOC’s Northparkes block cave mine is recognized as one of the world’s most automated operations. Planned expansion underground required new intake and exhaust vent raises, which failed in the lower sections shortly after raise boring was complete. CMOC needed accurate data on the condition of the raises so they could develop remediation or contingency plans. Cage-mounted Hovermap was lowered 560 m down the intake shaft, capturing detailed geotechnical data of the deformation and over-break.