In April 2013, Rio Tinto Kennecott Copper’s (RTKC) Bingham Canyon Mine experienced what is arguably the world’s largest ever in-pit slope failure. The failure initiated on the east wall of the mine, along major, continuous, low-strength bedding faults, which were the upper and lower contact of the Manefay hornfels bed. The failure comprised approximately 145 million tonnes of rock and waste dump material. East wall slope deformations were detected some months prior to the catastrophic slope collapse by RTKC’s ground-based slope monitoring systems. Use of existing terrestrial radar and prism monitoring systems provided excellent data to manage the response to the slope collapse. The failure resulted in no injuries/loss of life, although the failure runout distance was longer than expected, resulting in the loss of mining equipment and significant production interruption. Post-failure investigations identified an RTKC-sponsored, university research project, which detected a zone of sporadic ground deformation at the crest of the Manefay failure using satellite-based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) monitoring. When the outcomes of this research study were received in 2010, RTKC responded by conducting detailed field inspections, installing prisms in the area of concern and monitoring the area closely in the years before the event. Interferometric methods for calculating ground displacement from satellite-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data have improved significantly since the time leading up to the Manefay failure. These updated methods have been used in this study of the available historic SAR data with results indicating that significant ground movements were occurring over a number of years prior to failure. Detailed knowledge of these movements could potentially have led to a different interpretation of failure mechanisms and magnitude and, in hindsight, different slope management and mine development plans in the years preceding slope failure. From a business and mine operations perspective, the ability to identify subtle signs of slope failure before a catastrophic slope collapse is essential for appropriate management of such events. The use of InSAR monitoring, as discussed in this paper, provides an increased capability for further improved slope management at RTKC, and at other mining operations.

2013 年 4 月，力拓肯尼科特铜业 (RTKC) 的宾厄姆峡谷矿经历了可以说是世界上有史以来最大的坑内斜坡崩塌。破坏始于矿区东壁，沿主要的、连续的、低强度的层理断层，这是 Manefay 角岩层的上下接触层。失败包括大约 1.45 亿吨岩石和垃圾倾倒材料。RTKC 的地面边坡监测系统在灾难性边坡坍塌前几个月检测到东墙边坡变形。使用现有的地面雷达和棱镜监测系统提供了极好的数据来管理对斜坡坍塌的响应。故障没有造成人员伤亡，尽管故障跳动距离比预期的要长，导致采矿设备的损失和重大的生产中断。故障后调查确定了一个 RTKC 赞助的大学研究项目，该项目使用基于卫星的干涉合成孔径雷达 (InSAR) 监测检测到 Manefay 故障顶部的零星地面变形区域。在 2010 年收到这项研究的结果时，RTKC 通过进行详细的现场检查、在关注区域安装棱镜并在事件发生前的几年密切监控该区域进行了回应。自 Manefay 故障发生以来，用于根据卫星合成孔径雷达 (SAR) 数据计算地面位移的干涉测量方法已得到显着改进。这些更新的方法已用于对可用的历史 SAR 数据进行的这项研究，结果表明在失效前的几年内发生了显着的地面运动。对这些运动的详细了解可能会导致对破坏机制和程度的不同解释，事后看来，在斜坡破坏之前的几年中，不同的斜坡管理和矿山开发计划可能会导致不同的解释。从商业和矿山运营的角度来看，能够在灾难性的斜坡坍塌之前识别斜坡失效的细微迹象对于此类事件的适当管理至关重要。如本文所讨论的，InSAR 监测的使用为进一步改进 RTKC 和其他采矿作业的斜坡管理提供了增强的能力。