ACCURACY EVALUATION OF GEODETIC MONITORING OF DEFORMATIONS IN LARGE OPEN PIT MINES

Abstract

Abstract: To optimize safety and production, open pit mines require the displacements of hundreds of targets to be continuously monitored using a fully automated monitoring system. Robotic total stations (RTS) with automatic target recognition provide the most efficient solution for this monitoring task. The ALERT system, developed in Canada, provides a fully automated software system for the collection, processing, and the visualization/analysis of the required monitoring data. However, the users of the system must understand that despite the increased precision and reliability of the new generation of RTSs, there are still problems in satisfying all of the monitoring demands. The most significant problems are: the accuracy limitation of RTS pointing to the object targets, the effects of atmospheric refraction, the instability of reference control point/RTS locations, and the configuration defects that arise through multiple-RTS networking solutions. Two examples of large open pit mines in both Western Canada and in the Andes in South America are presented and discussed in this paper. Solutions to some of the problems have already been incorporated into the ALERT software, but there are still some remaining problems, which require further studies. 1.