Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference 2025 (RIC 2025)

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RS3 Stability analysis of cemented pasted-backfilled stopes transitioning from open pit at an Argentinian gold mine

Authors
J. Olivares1, C. Arriagada1, L. Marulanda1, *
1Universidad Del Desarrollo, Avenida Plaza 680, Las Condes, Chile
*Corresponding author. Email: lmarulanda@udd.cl
Corresponding Author
L. Marulanda
Available Online 7 December 2025.
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_26How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Stope; stability; finite elements; rock mass quality
Abstract

Due to increased mine depths and environmental requirements, mineral deposits that have been exploited by open pit are transitioning to underground mining. This paper presents the analysis of the stope design and the extraction sequence stability of a gold/silver deposit located in Santa Cruz, Argentina. The project is planned to be mined by stopes with cemented fill after 9 years from being an open pit.

The exploitation sequence is front to back and top to bottom and is filled in advance. In this case, the fill is cemented because it ensures the excavations stability with less deformation. The proposed method needs optimal extraction planning because of the size and the operational costs of the mine.

The rock mass studied present fair rock mass quality, generally in the range of 60–70 in terms of RMR, but due to the shape of the veins that pass through the mineral deposit, the rock quality could change to poor in terms of RMR. Therefore, a thorough study using RS3 is conducted, in the numerical model different stope geometries and extraction sequences are evaluated and the best results in terms of strength factor and deformations are presented.

Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference 2025 (RIC 2025)
Series
Atlantis Highlights in Engineering
Publication Date
7 December 2025
ISBN
978-94-6463-900-1
ISSN
2589-4943
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_26How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - J. Olivares
AU  - C. Arriagada
AU  - L. Marulanda
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/07
TI  - RS3 Stability analysis of cemented pasted-backfilled stopes transitioning from open pit at an Argentinian gold mine
BT  - Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference 2025 (RIC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 272
EP  - 279
SN  - 2589-4943
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_26
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-900-1_26
ID  - Olivares2025
ER  -