Stability analyses of footwall slopes in open pit mining

Abstract

In this paper we analyse different failure mechanisms typically associated to footwall slopes, in order to evaluate its stability using the numeric code UDEC. These results will then be analysed and contrasted against the “Limit Equilibrium Method” (LEM) to determine the use of UDEC as a valid tool in footwall slope analysis. Two real cases, where the footwall slope failure took place through complex mechanisms, are finally analysed using UDEC.