Geomechanical and hydrogeological modelling of the Gongo Soco mine slopes

摘要

Gongo Soco Mine is one of the most important mining complexes from the CVRD Corporation, in the region known as "Quadrilatero Ferrifero" in the state of Minas Gerais/Brazil. It is located in the central region of the state, presenting huge iron ore deposits, with about 74.5 million tons of hematite and 38 million tons of itabirite from estimated resources. Nowadays, the iron ore mining activities are in full operation, and the pit area is about 1.3 km long and 700 m wide, with slopes up to 100 m (southern slope) or 270 m (northern slope). The present conception can be induced to a final pit with slopes up to 400m deep. These aspects have implied a complete characterization of the local rock mass in terms of geomechanical and hydrogeological modelling. This paper presents the main results obtained from these studies for the implementation of the guidelines to the subsequent stability analyses.