I THINK MINING

Spent today tidying up a new course for EduMine.  And listening over and over again to Callas singing Norma—can there possible be a more sublime opera?  I already have five courses on EduMine, that site devoted to self-paced learning on topics in mining.  They are:

   This is a pretty mixed bag of topics.   I am no expert in any of them, but have general knowledge and project specific experience in all of them.

Now I am working on a course that more directly reflects my personal experiences gathered over thirty five years in mining.  It will be an introduction  to the geotechnical engineering of tailings impoundments, waste rock dumps, and heap leach pads.  Stand by!

Here is what I have written on the standard texts on geotechnical engineering.  These are the books and resources you should read if you are a geotechnical engineer in the mining industry, if you seek to manage geotechnical engineers at your mine, or if you are a regulator trying to review a geotechnical report on a mine facility.  Enjoy and appreciate these books as much as I do.  Some you will have to purchase from Amazon; but most you can download for free on the web.  How great a thing it is that these days we almost have no need to pay for knowledge if only we know what to look for and where to look.

  If you elect to read only one book on geotechnical engineering in order to get to the basics, we can do no better than recommend Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice (Third Edition) by Karl Terzaghi, Ralph B Peck and Gholamreza Mesri.  The original by Terzaghi & Peck was a standard university text book and thus we are partial & prejudice.  Mesri has done a masterful job of updating the original, so it is as fresh and relevant today as it was way back then.  This book has character and insight—unlike so many bland repetitions in so many modern textbooks stuffed with simple problems designed to train students to answer multiple-choice exams.  Rather, this book gives you insight into the nature of geotechnical engineering and the philosophy that is so essential a part of its successful practice.  In our opinion, you cannot call yourself a geotechnical engineer if you have not read and absorbed this book. 

A great companion to Terzaghi and Peck is Soil Mechanics for Unsaturated Soils by D. G. Fredlund and H. Rahardjo.  This book is published by Wiley as is Terzaghi and Peck and is in the same binding.  It is worthy of being the companion volume.   In this volume you will find everything you want about the characterization, analyses, and use of unsaturated soils.  Keep in mind that in many of the drier parts of the world where there are mines, the soil is not saturated, i.e., the pore spaces of the soil are not filled with water as tends to happen in the wetter parts of the world. 

   We are indebted to Bengt Fellenius for making a free electronic copy of his book, The Red Book Basics of Foundation Design and many other papers on soil mechanics and foundation design available to us at this link.   The book includes a superb set of chapters on the basics of soil mechanics that would well augment this course. 

  The great book by Poulis & Davis on stresses in soil and rock masses is available free in electronic format at this link.   Dating from 1974, this book is still a valuable resource for any geotechnical engineer faced with establishing the load and stress distribution in almost any geotechnical situation.  Note that at the website are also many other superb volumes relevant to geotechnical engineering available for free download.

Available in full free for electronic download is the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation’s Earth Manual.  This book has the practical bent that is needed to design and build earthworks at mines.  Here are the beginner’s guide to the identification and classification of soils, quantifying the index properties of soils and their engineering properties.  Here are the principles of investigation, exploratory methods. Sampling and testing procedures, and how best to record data about soils.  In an extended section on the control of earth construction are chapters of earthworks, foundations, embankments, dams, canals, and soil stabilization.  We have used this book in the field, so have most U.S. geotechnical engineers.  It is readily available to you and should be a key part of your mining-related geotechnical library. 

   The greater part of Rock Slope Engineering by E. Hoek & J.W. Bray is available free on Google books.  In this book are the fundamental principles of rock mechanics and their application to rock slopes.  To the extent the pages are blocked or you cannot purchase a copy, see the website for RocScience where most of the important information is readily downloadable.  Reading this will not make you a rock mechanics expert, but it will make you knowledgeable enough to solve (or at least manage the solution of) most mining-related rock mechanics problems. 

Tailings impoundments are the great mining geotechnical structures.  Still relevant and profound is Planning, Design, and Analysis of Tailings Dams by Steven G. Vick.  As this book is getting a bit out of date, we recommend a Google search of any topic that is critical to the safe and cost-effective operation of your mine.

  For a superb collection of design manuals related to geotechnical engineering go to the NAVFAC site.  Do a search for geotechnical or do a search for soil mechanics.  These searches will bring up eminently usable and proven manuals that detail the design and construction of geotechnical structure.  While originally written for naval facilities (hence NAVFAC) these volumes have gained a well deserved reputation amongst practicing civil engineers working in all areas of geotechnical engineering.  We am certain you will find here what you need. 

The geotechnical engineer is also generally a civil engineer. So go to the site www. icivilengineer. com for information about software, tools, new, and other information that is of interest to the civil and geotechnical engineer and can be used in a mining context.

These days it is almost possible to study geotechnical engineering solely by reference to Wikipedia where there are many insightful postings on all the most significant topics in geotechnical engineering.  Use this resources for it is good and likely to link you to the ever-expanding world of geotechnical engineering for mine wastes that is on and will be on the web.  In this course we provide links to some of the better Wikipedia expositions on geotechnical topics.  Read them to open another window to the wider world of geotechnical engineering on the web.