As Expected, East Highwall Fails at Montana Resources Mine, Montana
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Montana Resources alerted residents of Butte-Silver Bow County last week that some portion of a precipitous rockface visible from the community might collapse at the open pit copper and molybdenum mine.
That happened around 11:23 p.m. Tuesday. A video camera trained on the east highwall captured the failure, which began gradually but quickly gathered momentum before ending in a cloud of dust.
“The east highwall failed last night in a predicted manner and at the predicted time,” said Mark Thompson, vice president of environmental affairs for Montana Resources, on Wednesday.
On Tuesday morning, anticipating the failure, the mine evacuated personnel from the vicinity of the highwall. No one was injured.
Consultants had observed that the steep slope of the highwall increased the potential for instability. Thus, the mine has plans in the months ahead to reduce the slope.
Thompson said last week that Montana Resources hoped the highwall would fail on its own, without intervention. That’s what happened.
“This is actually a very favorable failure as it significantly reduces risks as we lay that wall back to a flatter slope,” Thompson said.
There are promising resources of copper ore at the base of the highwall that Montana Resources wants to excavate and process.
In late August, Montana Resources had detected instability in the east highwall.
Last week, Thompson said the movement was accelerating and that the failure would become more predictable as that process continued.
Monitoring equipment have included radar and slideminder detection technology whose data about movement of the highwall were tracked by Montana Resources employees and consultants.
Thompson said the highwall’s instability resulted from active mining.
Source: Montana Standard
About Montana Resources
Montana Resources owns and operates an open pit copper and molybdenum mines. The company produces copper and molybdenum concentrates. Montana Resources serves customers worldwide.
To stop by Montana Resources’ website, CLICK HERE
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