Item: Avalanche Management in a Large Chilean Copper Mine
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Title: Avalanche Management in a Large Chilean Copper Mine
Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop 2016 Proceedings, Breckenridge, CO, USA
Authors:
- Patricio Cerda [ Codelco Andina, Los Andes, Chile ]
- Luis Gallardo [ Codelco Andina, Los Andes, Chile ]
- Marcel Didier [ Codelco Andina, Los Andes, Chile ]
- Marcel Oyarzun Joaquin [ Mountain Safety, Los Andes, Chile ]
- Mujica Rodrigo [ Mountain Safety, Los Andes, Chile ]
- Cesar Vera [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland ]
Date: 2016-10-02
Abstract: The Andina copper mine is located at an elevation of 4200 m. in the Rio Blanco Valley north of Santiago de Chile. It is one of the world?s most productive copper mines. The primary service road is 35 km long and threatened by 148 avalanche paths. Workers, mine communications and important installations are threatened by both dry powder snow and wet snow avalanches. Mining staff in charge of road safety use different approaches to forecast avalanche danger. However, additional measures are still needed to reduce the residual risk. The problem here is the question, ?how safe is safe enough?? This question cannot be answered in purely scientific-technical terms because subjective factors, based on experience and intuition play an important role. In addition risk calculations are affected by different permanent and temporary protection measures. For example, to reduce the road closure hours, the avalanche safety team uses different avalanche control system such as Helibombing, GAZEX. CATEX, and AVALANCHEUR. The goal must be to guarantee that the risk during transportation of mine personnel on the service road is comparable to all (obviously accepted) risks during working hours. The safety decisions for closure of the road are often complex and not popular for mine operators. Ultimately the risk analysis is the most important measure to control road access. In this way Codelco Andina uses a network of automatic weather stations, snow profile and different software tools to predict the avalanche risk level. However, because the residual risk remains high and the requests for opening roads are increasing each winter, big challenges in the upcoming years lie ahead
Object ID: ISSW16_P4.42.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s):
Keywords: avalanche, management, risk, operation, mining
Page Number(s): 1348-1351
Subjects: risk management mining avalanche
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