Caving 2018 – Y Potvin and J Jakubec (eds)

© 2018 Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, ISBN 978-0-9924810-9-4

https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/1815_48_King/

Progression and management of seismic hazard through the

life of Telfer sublevel cave

MJ Woods Newcrest Mining Limited, Australia

ME Poulter Newcrest Mining Limited, Australia
RG King Newcrest Mining Limited, Australia

Abstract
Telfer gold mine consists of both open pit and underground operations, including a mature sublevel cave.
Changes to mine design, the addition of subsequent sublevels, level footprint and increasing depth have all
resulted in a changing seismic hazard, which is managed using a combination of seismic exclusions zones and
dynamic ground support. The seismic hazard associated with high-stress slot development and production is
well understood, but the progression of seismic activity into areas of low expected seismic hazard required a
systematic upgrade to support.
A common theme is that changes to mine design have resulted in additional and changing seismic hazards,
with areas of existing infrastructure no longer adequately designed or supported for the future expected
demand. Understanding how changes to mine planning, addition of sublevels, footprint size and depth all
effect the evolving seismic hazard, have been key to managing the hazard.
Keywords: hazard management, seismicity, sublevel cave

1 Introduction
The Telfer gold mine (Telfer), owned by Newcrest Mining Limited, is located in the Great Sandy Desert 400 km
east-southeast of Port Hedland, and approximately 1,300 km northeast of Perth. The Telfer deposit was
discovered in 1971, when anomalous gold and copper values were returned from outcrops in what is now
known as Main Dome. In late 2000, the operation was put into care and maintenance after producing
approximately 6 Moz of gold. A feasibility study was undertaken in 2002 that established the strategy for
mining and processing ore from the surface and underground deposits. This led to the re-establishment of
open pit mining operations in 2004, and underground operations in 2006.
Telfer is currently producing from the Main Dome and West Dome pits, and the underground operations,
which consist of a sublevel cave (SLC), narrow vein, long-hole open-stoping (M Reefs) and long-hole retreat
stoping (Western Flanks). The SLC was initiated in late 2006, at the 4650 Level, 850 m below surface. The
cave broke through into the Main Dome open pit in late 2009. The footprint of the cave is approximately
1,000 m by 250 m, with the current SLC extraction levels some 1,085 m below surface.
The open pit is currently mining at rates in the order of 50 Mtpa of ore and waste, while the underground is
hoisting in the order of 6 Mtpa. The ore sources combine to feed a mill that treats approximately 24 Mtpa.

2 Mine geology
Telfer’s geology is divided into two main geological domes, namely West Dome and Main Dome, with
underground mining operations occurring in the Main Dome. The Main Dome formation is a large,
oval-shaped, double-plunging open fold, consisting of a sedimentary stratigraphic sequence (Figure 1).

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Figure 1 Overview of geological units at Telfer, looking northeast

The current underground operation is constrained within the Malu Formation, which is a massive sandstone
and quartzite unit with thinly interbedded pelitic strata. The Malu Formation is divided into three major
members; the Upper (UMM), Middle (MMM), and Lower (LMM) members, that have undergone moderate
to intense sericite and silica metasomatism.
A large regional fault zone, the Graben Fault, exists on the eastern flank of the main orebody, which is
intersected by mine development. A number of large fault structures are related to the Graben Fault.

2.1 Rock mass characteristics

The regional faulting, folding and subsequent thrusting has resulted in slip between sedimentary layers.
The slip has caused brecciation of the weaker siltstones, facilitating the formation of both reef and shear
units throughout the entire mine stratigraphical sequence. This has resulted in frequent and pervasive
jointing, decreasing the overall rock mass strength, making it amenable to caving.
The intact rock strength is generally very high (greater than 200 MPa), with the exception being the major
ore units (around 80 MPa), with a generally fair quality rock mass, with rock mass rating (RMR) values
between 50 and 60.
The major principal stress has been measured to strike roughly northwest–southeast, dipping around 20° to
the southeast. Nine stress measurements have been taken at various depths using the HI Cell over-coring
method, AE techniques and borehole slotting. The calculated results are displayed in Table 1.

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Table 1 Principal stress orientation (D = depth below surface in metres)

Principal Magnitude Orientation

stresses (MPa)
Dip (°) Bearing (°)
Major 0.046D + 6 20 130
Intermediate 0.032D + 0 40 22
Minor 0.019D + 0 43 240

3 Mine design

3.1 Mine history

The feasibility study for underground mining was completed at the end of 2002, with the mine layout based
on that used at Ridgeway, with cave propagation in an east to west direction. Following a review of the layout
in 2004, the cave advance was changed to west to east, to promote cave initiation and propagation.
The SLC is based on a transverse layout, with crosscut centres spaced at 14 m (9 m pillars and 5 m wide
crosscuts) and sublevels spaced at 25 m. The slot drive is on the western flank of the orebody, with production
retreating in a ‘V’ shape towards the eastern flank, where perimeter drives and ore passes are located
(Figure 2). The crusher and shaft is located on the western side of the SLC, requiring the haulage drive to pass
under the SLC.

Figure 2 Telfer Mine transverse layout and mining front, 4475 Level and 4440 Level mining front

Caving was initiated at the 4650 Level and planned to progress seven levels to the 4500 Level, with the
haulage drive and orepass infrastructure located on the east of the 4475 Level, passing under the SLC.
The 4650 Level had a footprint of 315 × 185 m, with levels progressively increasing in size and stepping out
to the north and south, as far as the 4525 Level (1010 × 165 m). Below the 4525 Level, the footprint began
to reduce in north–south extent (Figure 3).

3.2 Change to mine design

In 2013, the 4475 Level was added to the mine plan resulting in a bypass of the haulage drive under the SLC,
and the addition of load stations to the 4475 Haulage Drive. The inclusion of the 4475 Level production drive
and loading stations between the 4475 Haulage Drive and production footprint resulted in numerous pillars
with a 1:1 ratio (Figure 2).

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Figure 3 Telfer Mine SLC level footprint

Below the 4600 Level, the SLC stepped in to the east to target higher grade reserves. However, the southern
part of the 4475 Level stepped back to the west of the above levels, resulting in the cave being pushed into
the high-stress abutment, with an increase in seismic activity around the slots drives post-2016 (Figure 4).

Figure 4 4475 Level step out to the west and seismic events over +1 ML coloured by time

The 4440 Level was added to the mine plan in 2015, with the footprint reducing significantly to 455 × 85 m,
located in the north and central section of the SLC footprint.

4 Seismic system
The Telfer seismic system was initially installed and commissioned in late 2005, and has since been upgraded
and expanded to include 43 operational triaxial geophones of different natural frequency; 22 4.5 Hz and
21 14 Hz geophones. This allows for the estimate of seismic source parameters and local magnitude, with the
seismic system providing real-time data transfer via the underground fibre optic network.
The sensor array took advantage of mine infrastructure to locate sensors at different depths and locations
around the SLC (Figure 5). The system layout and sensitivity was designed for location accuracies of less than
30 m, and recording of all events greater than local magnitude (ML) -1.5. Due to the development layout and
expected seismic hazard, a large proportion of sensors are located on the western side of the SLC, resulting
in higher system sensitivity and location accuracy on the western abutment of the SLC.

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Figure 5 Telfer Mine seismic system layout, looking south - 2018

5 Seismic history
The seismic and mining history for the SLC is outlined in Table 2 and Figure 6. The seismic activity rate was
highest during cave propagation and breakthrough to the Main Dome pit.

Table 2 Telfer SLC and seismic history

Period Mining activity Events Average events/day Largest event

(ML > -1) (ML > -1) (ML)
2005–2006 First production and early stages of cave 751 ~20 1
initiation
2007–2008 Cave established and mostly propagated to 43,252 ~460 2.3
the surface
2009–2010 Cave breaks through to the surface and 70,372 ~460 1.9
growth steps out in both the northern and
southern limbs (4600 and 4575 Levels)
2011–2012 Continued cave growth in the northern limb 33,046 ~170 2.4
(4550 Level)
2013–2014 Cave growth steps out in both the northern 23,615 ~130 2.9
and southern limbs (4525 Level). Production
begins on the 4475 Level
2015 Cave growth on the western side of cave. 15,173 ~190 1.8
4475 production mines through the western
truncation of the SLC
2016 Production on 4500 steps out in the north 12,887 ~160 1.9
2017 Production of 4475 and 4440, and start of 9,545 ~95 2.1
Western Flanks mining

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Figure 6 Historic of seismicity >ML-1.5 at Telfer, 2005 to 2018, including 30 day moving average

5.1 Cave growth

Following breakthrough to the Main Dome open pit in 2009, the concentration of cave growth seismic activity
has been located in the north-east and south-west of the SLC – the areas of maximum stress concentration
(Figure 7).

Figure 7 Three months of seismic activity demonstrating stress concentration around the cave column

Since 2016, activity on the northeastern side of the SLC, up to approximately 4700 Level, has increased, which
appears to be a result of stress redistribution on the northeastern flank, with subsequent cave break-back.
This area also coincides with a confluence of major structures and rock units.

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5.2 Understanding of seismic hazard

The pattern of seismicity at Telfer has generally been that the western side of the SLC has predominantly
experienced high-stress, large events, generally coincident with and adjacent to slot advance, with the
eastern side shadowed by the slot, resulting in low-energy cave growth events. Figure 8 displays a plot of
energy index for the 4475 Level that illustrates this understanding.

Figure 8 Plan of the 4475 Level showing energy index (pers. comm., Institute of Mine Seismology
November 2017)

The majority of damaging seismic events has been located on the western side of the SLC, with most of the
damage associated with the slot drives.
A recent report by Beck Engineering (2015), indicates that a reducing footprint means subsequent levels are
less ‘shadowed’ by levels above, and at times, slotting induces large movements and energy release. At some
other mines, such as Perseverance in Western Australia, shrinking level sizes have evolved a similar pattern
of seismicity encroaching on work areas with large seismic events and rockbursts occurring more frequently.

5.2.1 Blasting and seismicity

Historically, large seismic events have been associated with slot firings on the western abutment of the SLC,
with an increase in activity as the slot advance pushes into the major stress concentration to the north and
south. This is noticeable in the magnitude/time charts. The example in Figure 9 shows the seismic response
between October 2017 and April 2018, with a noticeable reduction in seismicity during the SLC shutdown
between November and December 2017. Also noticeable is the seismic response to slot firing, with a
coincident jump in number and magnitude of events.

5.2.2 Production and seismicity

The overall number of seismic events and cave growth is strongly influenced by production from the SLC, as
demonstrated during the suspension of SLC production, where there was an instant reduction of seismic
activity (Figure 9).
The relationship between more subtle production rate changes and seismicity is less apparent. Production
rate has gradually reduced over time. However, during the same period, the rate of occurrences of events
over ML > 0 has increased, with a greater rate of increase for events ML > 1 (Wesseloo, pers. comm.,
14 December 2017).

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Figure 9 Magnitude/time chart, with cumulative number of events line, displaying response to firing.
The green stars along the bottom indicate SLC slot firing blasts

5.2.3 Seismicity and structural influence

Other than the Graben Fault, no identified structures appear to dominate seismicity, and seismic hazard
appears to be driven by mining-induced stress on local structures within the rock mass. Over time, the seismic
hazard migrates, due to local stress changes caused by the mining front and larger scale stress redistribution
as the rock mass zones around and under the SLC yield and shed load to other areas of more competent rock
(Wesseloo, pers. comm., 14 December 2017). This has resulted in seismicity now exhibiting less
blasting-dependant behaviour, occurring outside blasting and exclusion practices, as the cave zone enlarges.
Since 2016, the magnitude of the seismic hazard has increased on the eastern side of the cave. This appears
to be associated with a yielding of pillars on structure within the 4475 Level, and a subsequent redistribution
of stress onto the eastern abutment. A general drop in the b-value in the eastern abutment (Figure 10)
indicates a possible mechanism change, from a crushing-dominated failure mode to a shearing-dominated
mode (Wesseloo, pers. comm., 14 December 2017). Around the western side of the cave an increasing
b-value appears to indicate greater rock mass damage.

5.3 Large events

Large events have historically been associated with slot firing, and have occurred simultaneously with, or
directly following, firing in the western abutment (Figure 11).
The largest event to date was ML+2.9 in November 2014, located in the northwest abutment, occurring
simultaneously with a production firing in the 4500N slot drive. The likely mechanism was unclamping of the
B30 Reef and a number of intersecting structures.

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(a)

(b)
Figure 10 Plot of b-value (a) 2012–2016 at the 4430RL; and, (b) 2017 onwards, showing higher b-values to
the west and lower b-values in the east

Figure 11 Seismic events greater than +1.5 ML clustered around the 4475 and 4440 slot drive

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6 Managing seismicity
Seismicity is managed through a hierarchy of controls, with the objective that hazards should be removed,
with protection measures or just-in-time forecasting techniques adopted only as a last resort.
Control measures can be categorised as either tactical or strategic:
 Tactical applications are typically operational in nature, such as ground support, seismic exclusion
practices and seismic response trigger action response plans (TARP) for large events or rockbursts.
The TARPs detail the actions, communication and response required in the event of a large seismic
event experienced in a number of locations, or a local rockburst, respectively. This includes immediate
actions to be taken and reporting, as well as investigations and any remedial action required.
 Strategic applications typically relate to mine planning and sequencing activities, such as shadowing
areas and pillar sizes. These are outlined in the Telfer Seismic Risk Management Plan.

6.1 Exclusion practise

Seismic exclusion practices are implemented at Telfer for slot firings and stand-up firing of crosscuts, with
exclusion zones based on Omori analysis of slot firings in different quadrants of the SLC. Minimum exclusion
practices are three hours, but must be reviewed by the geotechnical engineer prior to lifting.

6.2 Ground support

Ground support practices have evolved with the increasing seismic hazard, with dynamic ground support
installed in the slot drive, final 20 m of SLC crosscuts, and North Abutment zone. Ground support in these
areas consists of 50 mm fibre-reinforced shotcrete (FRS), mine mesh and 2.4 m de-bonded Posimix bolts,
with 25 mm FRS sprayed over the mesh. Mesh sheets are overlapped by 1.5 m, securing the overlap with two
Posimix bolts, reducing the potential for overlap failure (Figure 12). De-bonded Posimix bolts are installed
using 1.5 m resin cartridges to limit the guillotine effect during shear loading and increase the amount of
deformation the bolt can withstand before failure.

Figure 12 Dynamic ground support scheme used in the slot drive and high seismic hazard areas

Within the SLC, outside of the above domains classified as requiring medium to high dynamic ground support,
the ground support standard was 50 mm FRS and fully bonded Posimix bolts.

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6.3 Production management

Production rules are implemented to protect development, where possible, with the slot drive shadowing
the subsequent development. SLC crosscuts are held 12 m short of the slot drive until the slot is fired past
the next crosscut, shadowing the area, before the pillar is closed and stand-up fired (Figures 13 and 14).

Figure 13 Plan of development and production sequence to shadow crosscut development and pillars

Slot drives on subsequent levels maintain a minimum 40 m lead-lag, to reduce interaction between levels,
and crosscut lead-lag rules to maintain the production front between 0 and 45°.

Figure 14 Plan of 4440 Level showing crosscut firings in red, demonstrating the slot drive firings in green
passing the crosscuts before they are developed past their hold point

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7 Upgrade to sublevel cave ground support

7.1 Identification of high-risk areas

A significant amount of development on the eastern side of the SLC was completed with low energy absorption
ground support schemes and, with the changing pattern of seismicity, required upgrading to match the future
expected demand. A targeted response to support upgrade was developed, reducing disruption.

7.1.1 Damage mapping

Underground inspection and mapping was completed to identify the installed ground support capacity,
corrosion and damage. The Kaiser support damage scale (Kaiser et al. 1992) was used to rank the level of
support damage, along with a site-based, six-stage corrosion scale, from no corrosion to extreme corrosion.
Ground support standards were also assigned, based on the dynamic capacity of the reinforcement and
surface support. Of particular concern were areas that had only FRS surface support, with no weld mesh,
existing damage or high corrosion. The results of the mapping were recorded using the mXrap damage
mapping application (Harris & Wesseloo 2015) (Figure 15).

Figure 15 Section of the 4475 Level with identified structures and damage mapping recorded in mXrap

7.1.2 Structural geology review

A review of the structural model and historic fall of ground data identified that damage is associated with
certain structures and that certain combinations of structures are particularly prone to instability. Falls of
ground have tended to occur most frequently along the intersection of reefs (or bedding planes) with
southwest-dipping veins (SWDV), northwest-trending veins (NWV) and south-dipping joints (SDJ).
The majority of these falls of ground have occurred close to the production front, well after development,
suggesting that these structures are not immediately activated. This information was used as the starting
point for identification of areas requiring upgrade (Figure 15).

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7.2 Upgrade requirements

Information from the above sources was collated and combined to identify areas requiring upgrade, as per
the flow chart in Figure 16.

Figure 16 Decision flow chart to identify support upgrade requirements using Kaiser’s support damage
scale rating 1–5 (Kaiser et al. 1992)

Ground support upgrades utilised a combination of strengthened overlap mesh, Sandvik MD bolts and MDX
bolts, and cable bolts. Strengthened overlap mesh is described by Louchnikov et al. (2014), where the product
comprises a standard 5.6 mm weld mesh with the addition of two wires of the same diameter along the edge
of the sheet. This results in stronger and stiffer overlaps and reduces the risk of mesh failure at these
locations. The MDX bolt is a modification of the MD bolt, with a greater energy absorption and deformation
capacity, developed in conjunction with Telfer, as described by Darlington et al. (2018). The MDX bolt allows
for a more efficient installation, while providing greater than 25 kJ capacity (Darlington et al. 2018).

8 Conclusion
The evolving seismic hazard at Telfer has been well managed through an extensive seismic monitoring
network, TARPs and the implementation of the seismic risk management plan. The hazard has increased with
the addition of extra sublevels and mine design changes, as well as increasing cave size, but has not
experienced a step change in activity. However, the predictability of seismicity and its association with
blasting and slot firings is decreasing with time, as more seismicity is associated with stress redistribution
around and under the cave.
A common theme is that changes to mine design have resulted in additional and changing seismic hazards,
with areas of existing infrastructure no longer adequately designed or supported for the future expected
demand. Understanding how changes to mine planning, addition of sublevels, footprint size and depth all
effect the evolving seismic hazard is key to managing the hazard.

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Acknowledgement
The authors thank Newcrest Mining Limited and Telfer Mine management for permission to publish this
paper. They also acknowledge previous members of the Telfer geotechnical department.

References
Beck Engineering, 2015, Updated Simulation of Global Mining Induced Deformation at Telfer, Beck Engineering, Sydney.
Darlington, B, Rataj, M, Balog, G & Barnett, D 2018, ‘Development of the MDX Bolt and in-situ dynamic testing at Telfer Gold Mine’,
in CC Li, X Li & Z-X Zhang (eds), Proceedings of Third International Conference on Rock Dynamics and Application, CRC Press.
Harris, PC & Wesseloo, J 2015, mXrap, version 5, computer software, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, The University of Western
Australia, Perth, https://www.mxrap.com
Kaiser, PK, Tannant, DD, McCreath, DR & Jesenak, P 1992, ‘Rockburst damage assessment procedure’, in PK Kaiser & DR McCreath
(eds), Rock Support in Underground Mining and Construction, A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 639–647.
Louchnikov, V, Sandy, M, Watson, O, Orunesu, M & Eremenko, V 2014, ‘An overview of surface rock support for deformable ground
conditions’, Proceedings of the Twelfth AUSIMM Underground Operators Conference, The Australasian Institute of Mining
and Metallurgy, Melbourne, pp. 57–66.

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