GEOTECHNICAL MODELLING ON INDONESIA MINING

INDUSTRY
By Gilang Firmanda

Background 6. Lack of understanding that geotechnics

In Indonesia, only top-class mining companies
have realized and implemented geotechnical
modeling and supervision systems as part of
their operations. Whereas, only a few of mid-low
range companies who implement good
geotechnical practice in their mining. Most of
this occurred because of the lack of awareness
that geotechnical is one of the works, health &
environment safety component. On the other
hand, there are still many companies that are
more focused on their production compared to
work safely in accordance with government
regulations.
Mid-low range companies will become aware of
the importance of geotechnics in mining
operations when there has been a landslide or a
failure in their mine pit that is detrimental to the
company's operations. What they do not know is
that by investing in geotechnical aspects &
investigations earlier, they can reduce risk from
the beginning.
These are some commonly used excuses by
mining companies in not doing investigation
and monitoring works on geotechnical aspects
of mining:
1. The company is prioritizing production.
2. Geotechnics is considered as law
enforcer which disrupts production.
3. Maintaining a safe open pit slope
stability is considered to make greater
stripping ratio and smaller reserve
recovery.
4. Geotechnical research takes a lot of time
and costs money.
5. There are no funds to invest in software
or man power for geotechnical work.
is a component in mining operational
safety.
7. Insufficient understanding of the
consequences of the risk of geotechnical
hazards that can cause a greater cost
loss if it has already occurred.
Effects of Ignoring Geotechnical Aspects
Landslides in mines are actually a fairly common
occurrence, but if from the beginning the
companies have had complete geotechnical
investigations & data in a specific site, the
impact and risk of landslides to mining
operations can be minimized. This can be started
with a geotechnical investigation, followed by
making the specific geotechnical modeling,
designing the “right” geometry of the
excavation, to make a hazard area based on the
consequences of failures.
Some of the losses obtained when ignoring
geotechnics in mining operations are as follows:
1. Loss of life or disability.
2. Loss of income for workers.
3. Loss of employee confidence in
operational activities.
4. Loss of company credibility.
5. Safety & social factors.
6. Blocking operational activities.
7. Loss of resources / resources (ore, coal).
8. Loss of equipment & equipment.
9. Increase the stripping ratio due to
landslide material that must be cleaned.
Mining Geotechnical Modeling
Conducting geotechnical modeling from the
very beginning is a very good preventative step,
and also indicates that the company is
concerned about good safety in mining

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 Figure 1. Example of Landsides on Mining,
source: https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/duplicates/4jw6ei/massive_landslide_this_week_at_the_martha_mine/

practices. The making of geotechnical models factor and the level of confidence in the
can be adjusted in quantity by the area of the analysis made.
research site and budget, but for the quality of 4. Get a more detailed description of the
the data collected there should be no geotechnical conditions and
compromise. Some input data or basic characteristics at the site.
information needed to make a geotechnical
KEPMEN 1827 K/30/MEM 2018
model are:
In the past few years the Government of
1. Data of model geometry.
Indonesia has contributed to the curbing of
2. Data on subsurface geological
mining geotechnical data collection for all
information.
mining companies in Indonesia. In 2018, the
3. Material properties of rock/soil.
Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources issued
4. Groundwater conditions.
Ministerial Decree 1827 K / 30 / MEM 2018, in
5. Additional data such as rainfall
which there was a new regulation that every
conditions, static and dynamic load
mining company must carry out geotechnical
conditions, etc.
data collection at least:
Some of the benefits that can be obtained from
1. Geometry modeling of mine slopes.
geotechnical modeling are:
2. Dynamic safety factor of open pit slope.
1. Inventory of existing geological data 3. Probability analysis.
information. 4. Recommended service life for mine
2. Cross check the complete data available slopes.
at the site. 5. The consequences of failures.
3. Get a more detailed description of the 6. Mine slope monitoring required.
completeness of the data, uncertainity

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 Figure 2. Example of open pit slope modelling.
Source : GEOSLOPE Internasional Ltd.
With this new regulation, it is expected that all
mining companies in Indonesia will slowly begin
to apply the geotechnical aspects of mining in
their operations.
Conclusions
Geotechnical modeling in mining operations is
very important, because it is a component in
work safety and good mining practice. Many
mining companies in Indonesia still do not apply
the geotechnical aspects of mining in their
mining activities, therefore the Ministry of
Energy and Mineral Resources issues KEPMEN
1827 K / 30 / MEM 2018 which contains the
obligation to collect geotechnical fields in every
mining operation. The hope is that all mining
companies from small to large companies have
begun to slowly realize how important mining
geotechnics are
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In conducting geotechnical modeling, qualified
human resources and sophisticated tools are
needed in carrying out the modeling. One tool
that can be used is a software called GeoStudio
2019, which is able to help geotechnical
engineers to do modeling easily. Whether or not
the modeling that is made is influenced by
existing human resources, training and
experience are needed enough to be able to do
geotechnical modeling correctly. LENUSA
Consulting is working with GEO-SLOPE
International Ltd and EDP Media to hold a public
training entitled "International Geotechnical
Modeling" which will be held on March 26-29,
2019 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In this training,
participants will learn to do the stages of
geotechnical modeling using SLOPE / W, SEEP /
W and SIGMA / W.
References
[1] Abramson LW, Lee TS, Sharma S, Boyce
GM (2002) Slope Stability and
Stabilization Methods. John Wiley &
Sons, New York, NY.
[2] Hawley Mark, Cunning John (2017)
Guidelines for Mine Waste Dump and
Stockpile Design. CSIRO Publishing,
Australia.
[3] Read John, Stacey Peter (2009) Guidelines
for Open Pit Slope Design. CSIRO
Publishing, Australia.
[4] GEO-SLOPE International Ltd (2018) Pit
Slope Design Using Multiple
Geometries. Canada

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LENUSA CONSULTING by
PT. LERENG NUSANTARA KONSULTAN © 2019