In Situ Investigation for Geotechnical Characterization of Consolidated Dry Mine Tailing Slurry Backfill

The paper pertains to the determination of elastic and strength parameters of dry consolidated cemented mine tailing deep down a mine stope. The equipment used is a low-cost manually operated pre-bored strain-controlled small-sized pressuremeter (CAVITEX). Basic principles of the equipment are same as those of conventional pressuremeter as developed by Menard, but in contrast, the measuring probe has a single cell instead of tricell and the surface control unit is also different from those of conventional pressuremeters. This made the equipment lighter and easy to maneuver within the mine stopes located deep down (284 m) below the ground surface. A succinct introduction of the equipment has been given herein along with its operation and the theory used for estimating the tailing properties. The used equipment is robust, reliable, and easy to transport inside the mine. The test site conditions have been presented in the paper. The pressuremeter test results as obtained and the tailing parameters like the coefficient of lateral stress at rest, Poisson’s ratio, soil modulus like elastic modulus and shear modulus and the angle of shearing resistance as obtained, as computed are found to be reasonable. The studies showed that the method can be extended to determine the in situ properties of other geomaterials.