Geo-surveying for safe underground mining in gypsum deposit in Monferrato basin (Italy)

摘要

Gypsum is an important raw material for constructions and other industrial sectors. In the last few years, gypsum exploitation has been developed, due to the high request on the national and international market. In Piemonte, main gypsum bodies are located in the Monferrato area. In the last centuries, most of them have been exploited and, actually, four quarries are still working. The gypsum bearing formation outcrops show typical geological, structural and hydrogeological features which can influence quarrying exploitation. According to observations and data collected in some gypsum quarries, this paper considers some of these aspects in order to point out the main problems connected to the gypsum quarrying activity and give proper operational advises in quarrying surveying, planning and management of open pit and underground exploitations of gypsum. Due to recent new hypothesis about the geological and structural setting of the gypsum deposits in Monferrato area, particular attention will pay to their consequences on the traditional surveying methods, taking also care to geo-mechanical aspects related to the presence of karst phenomena and stratigraphical or structural marly layers.