South America: San Rafael mine, Peru

This mine is a deep and narrow hard rock mine with frequent rock bursts problems due to large, open stopes left without backfill. SRK provided a geotechnical rock mechanics study consisting of logging, mapping of underground workings, classifying rock mass quality to input parameters for stopes design, mining sequence and control strategies for over-excavation. By applying numerical 3D modelling of rock masses, strategies for mitigation of rock bursts were developed. One approach was to change the mining method to bench and fill or to transverse stopes in specific orebodies, optimise the mine sequence, evaluate of the paste backfill strength and design support to dynamic loading in burst-prone areas.