Ground Support Asset Management

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ABSTRACT Geotechnical Asset Management is an approach that has been adopted by civil infrastructure and state highway departments to assess the "value" of rock slopes and develop a tool to assess the cost-effectiveness and importance of prioritizing slope and ground improvement projects to enhance transportation corridor reliability. The Ground Support Asset Management program aims to adopt an asset management framework for the underground construction and mining sectors. The University of Arizona operates the San Xavier Mining Laboratory south of Tucson, Arizona. The mine has adits and openings over three levels, including shaft access. The S.X. underground mine will be the launch site and be used as a testbed for trialing the Ground Support Asset Management program. Key aspects that degrade the useful life of elements are corrosion and deformation due to excessive convergence yielding ground in weak rock, deep, and high-stress environments. The primary focus will be on utilizing systems that collect high-resolution point clouds and spectral data to assess deformation and corrosion based on the point cloud data. A secondary project aim is to assess the rock mass and ground conditions for rock reinforcement and ground support design. The research project aims to develop a framework to assess the remaining useful life of ground support and rock reinforcement elements. Then, using the tools and logic developed in this project, the U.A. San Xavier mine and other mining companies can make informed decisions on when to rehabilitate access drifts and critical openings based on proper safety and economic basis. INTRODUCTION Fall of Ground (FOG) events still occur in underground mines – even in areas of supported ground. These events are typically the result of unsupported or inadequately supported ground. Like slope failures, FOG occurs with precursory deformation that can be confirmed with monitoring. Convergence is currently measured in underground mines using tape extensometers, multipoint borehole extensometers, or fixed-station lidar systems. These are now commonly used in underground mines in high occupancy and high-traffic areas. Lidar scanners are commonly used for mine surveys; however, repeated scans are not usually undertaken to measure convergence and geomechanical monitoring. This is due to the time it takes to conduct a scan and the additional processing time to calculate deformation or convergence from successive scans.