You are on page 1of 8

The influence of geological factors on quarry design

J.A. Hudson
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, UK

ABSTRACT: Geological factors on both the small and large scales are of utmost importance in quarry
design: in particular, the intact rock anisotropy, the rock fractures, the in situ rock stress, and the hydrogeological regime can have major impacts. Examples of the influences of these factors on quarry geometry are presented, including the effect of microstructural anisotropy in granite, sliding on pre-existing joints and faults,
and the development of exfoliation joints during quarrying. Knowledge of these factors and appropriate adjustment of the quarry design to account for them leads to significant safety and financial benefits.
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Definition of the term quarry
Quarry: An open air excavation from which stone
for building or other purposes is obtained by cutting,
blasting, or the like. Oxford English Dictionary.
There is sometimes a problem concerning the exact meanings of the words quarry and mine, i.e.
whether the underground extension of a quarry is
still termed a quarry or whether such an extension
should be called a mine. In the literature, both terms
are used, and so there is no need to be pedantic about
the precise usage. But note that this paper relates to
the planning and operation of surface and underground quarries, but not to remediation of disused
quarries.
1.2 The purpose and content of this paper
When designing any rock engineering project, we
have to be concerned about risk: we need to be able
to predict the future when designing a facility but the
reality related to the design assumptions may be differentand hence the risk. For quarry design there
are many issues, ranging from quality of the stone,
through excavation techniques, transport systems,
safety and financial aspects to environmental issues.
In this paper, the emphasis is on the significant
influence of geological factors on quarry design. The
most fundamental geological consideration is whether the rock is suitable for its intended purpose and
whether there is sufficient grade of this rock type to
enable extraction over the required life of the quarry.
But there are many other geological and related rock
mechanics aspects, such as the influences of

intact rock,
rock fractures,
in situ rock stress, and
water flow through rock fractures.
These geological factors are reviewed and suitable approaches to reduce the related risks are recommended. The awareness of these factors and the
implementation of appropriate extraction procedures
to avoid or at least mitigate their effects will enhance
quarrying operations and have associated financial
benefits.
1.3 The context for the paper
This symposium, the 1st International Conference on
Applied Empirical Design Methods in Mining, is an
ISRM Specialised Conference organized by Dr Antonio Samaniego through the ISRM Design Methodology Commission. In the ISRM Presidential period
20072011, the Design Methodology Commissions
work was concentrated on rock engineering design
and construction and how these aspects could be audited through the use of Protocol Sheets (Feng &
Hudson, 2011). In the current Presidential period
20112015, the Design Methodology Commissions
work is focused on rock engineering risk and hence
the emphasis is on the risk elements occurring in design and construction. One of these is awareness of
the many geological issues that can cause risks in
design, whether the project is surface based, underground based, or both.
So, although there is a wide spectrum of potential
geological influences, it is beneficial here to concentrate on the four geology-related aspects of intact

rock, fractures, stress and waterbecause these govern the majority of risks.
2 INTACT ROCK MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
The nature and suitability of the intact rock for its intended purpose will have been established when the
quarry was first envisaged and it may not appear at
first sight that that mechanical properties have any
significance in relation to the overall geometry of the
quarry. However, note the quarry geometry in Figure
1.

ure 3. Closely spaced small diameter boreholes are


drilled in the vertical rift plane and the horizontal
grain plane. The vertical side planes of the block are
first released using flame cutting (Figures 45) and
then detonating cord is used to blast the rift and
grain planes. The high velocity detonating cord is a
thin, flexible plastic tube filled with PETN, i.e. pentaerythritol tetranitrate.

Figure 3. The mining technique involves creating flame-cut release slots in the vertical hardway plane at each end of the
block and then blasting closely spaced boreholes drilled in the
vertical rift and horizontal grain planes.

Figure 1. Influence of the microscopic rock anisotropy on the


macroscopic granite quarry geometry, i.e. walls at right angles.

Figure 4. Flame cut granite block surface following the extraction method illustrated in Figure 3.

Figure 2. Illustration of the grain, rift and hardway planes in


granite. This diagram is from Fujii et al. (2007) and also shows
orthogonal cores taken for anisotropy testing.

Thus, in this granite quarry case example, the realisation that the intact rock has a threeway orthotropic micro-anisotropy and the utilisation of this
feature have not only helped significantly in enabling
easier extraction but also determined the overall geometry of the quarry.

Granite tends to have a 3-D strength anisotropy,


characterised by the rift, grain and hardway planes
(the hardway being the strongest) as illustrated in
Figure 2. This means that excavation is optimised if
the procedure takes advantage of the anisotropy.
The excavation method used at the Grabinex
granite quarry in Strzegom, Poland, is shown in Fig2

instabilities have been studied from the early days of


rock mechanics and rock engineering, but there has
been insufficient emphasis on linking the existence
of the fractures with the geological setting.
In Figure 6, it can be seem that the earlier fracture
sets (labelled 1 and 2) are more dominant and split
the rock mass into blocks, which in turn are split further by the later fracturing (labelled 3 and 4). However, a three dimensional fracture characterisation is
required, in this case via the bedding. Figure 7 indicates how the dominant fractures may have been
weakened by the long term action of flowing water.

Figure 5. Removal of granite blocks following the excavation


procedure illustrated in Figure 3.

3 ROCK FRACTURES
3.1 The nature of rock fractures
Rock masses contain pre-existing fractures: joints
(which have been formed by tensile stress) and faults
(which have been formed by shear stress). Hydraulic
pressure may also have played a role in the formation of fractures. Additionally, the fractures have
usually been formed during several episodes in geological time. In particular, later fractures will tend to
terminate at older fractures, see Figure 6. This means
that the fractures are generally not randomly located
and orientated (although the assumption of randomness can be a useful in some types of modelling).

Figure 6. Carboniferous limestone strata (South Wales, UK)


illustrating how four successive fracturing events (indicated by
the white numbers) have created this fracture pattern. The longer more significant fractures tend to occur first.

The influence of fractures can be significant in


terms of quarry designbecause of bench and larger
scale surface instabilities induced by the fractures:
plane sliding, wedge sliding and toppling. Such

Figure 7. Limestone strata in the UK illustrating the presence of


both bedding planes and large fractures, the surfaces of which
been affected by water flowing through the fractures.

However, the dolomitic joint trace pattern shown


in Figure 8 shows that the situation may well be
more complex and the exact distribution of rock
blocks difficult to predict. To what extent it is necessary to predict the discrete nature of the rock mass
will depend on the purpose for which the rock is required. In the case of a quarry for aggregate material,
any pre-existing fracturing can be regarded as beneficial, assuming that it does not lead to instability
problems; but the requirements in a quarry for building stone are for essentially unfractured rock blocks.
If the geometries of the fracture sets are known,
these types of failure can be minimised by suitable
adjustment of the overall quarry plan. It is rarely that
an exactly circular quarry plan is essential: so changing to an elliptical quarry plan with a suitable orientation of the long and short axes of the ellipse can
have a dramatic effect in reducing the occurrences of
plane, sliding and toppling failures. Of course, this
can only be done if the fractures have been mapped.

Figure 8. Joint trace pattern (on horizontal surface plane) in the


Niagara dolomite at Lannon, Wisconsin, USA, from La Pointe
& Hudson (1985). The circle of dots was used for measurement
purposes and has a diameter of 13.5 m.
Figure 10. Example of two fracture surfaces which have caused
wedge sliding at a granodiorite quarry in the UK.

Figure 9. Example of a large shear surface which has caused


plane sliding at a granodiorite quarry in the UK.

Examples of the effect of the presence of rock


fractures are illustrated in Figures 911. Bench and
even multi-bench failures can be tolerated in many
cases but major slides in deep quarries can be disastrous. However, these are caused by large fractureswhich are easier to detect during the geological mapping. Considering the relatively low cost of
geological mapping, it is well worth the investment
to avoid the risk of unexpected rock falling, sliding
and toppling events.

Figure 11. Sub-vertical fractures which can cause toppling failure at a granodiorite quarry in the UK.

In some cases, pervasive pre-existing rock fractures can have a significant effect on the quarrying of
rock for sculptural and building purposes, see Figure
4

12 where rock fractures in marble (dipping towards


the observer) have caused failure at the apices of the
blocks being quarried.

Figure 12. Marble quarry in Portugal where pre-existing fractures have interfered with the block quarrying technique.

The combination of large (Figure 14) and small


(Figure 15) faults intersecting the exfoliation fractures can cause a problem when large bock extraction is required.

Figure 14. Major weathered sub-vertical fracture intersecting


sub-horizontal exfoliation fractures in a granitic rock mass at
the Grabinex quarry in Strzegom, Poland.

3.2 Exfoliation fractures


This type of fracture is created when the magnitude
of the vertical pre-existing stress component is reduced due to removal of the overlying rock, either
through natural geological processes or anthropogenically, i.e. quarrying. In Figure 13, horizontal natural
exfoliation fractures are clearly visible in the granitic
rock mass and can be used as the bench surfaces. In
Figure 14, the intersection of a major fault with the
exfoliation joints is illustrated.

Figure 15. Exfoliation fractures and jointing/faulting in a granitic rock mass at the Grabinex quarry in Strzegom, Poland.

4 IN SITU ROCK STRESS


4.1 Surface quarries

Figure 13. Horizontal exfoliation fractures in a granitic rock


mass at the Grabinex quarry in Strzegom, Poland.

The stress in a rock mass is characterized by the


three orthogonal principal stress components: the
major, minor and intermediate components. Generally, these components are orientated horizontally
and vertically. The primary causes of the natural
rock stress are the weight of the overburden and the
effect of tectonic plate movement. In the majority of

cases and perhaps counter-intuitively, one of the horizontal stress components has the greatest value.
This pre-existing, naturally occurring, stress field
may have little effect on the quarrying operations,
but sometimes it can have a significant effects, e.g.
when buckling occurs on the quarry surfaces, i.e.,
breakage as the surface strata are removed and hence
the overburden load is removed, Figure 16. This
phenomenon is discussed, for example, in Steck
(1999) and Damjanac & Fairhurst (2009), the former
of whom states that, Quarry floor buckles are considered to be modern features, caused by the relief of
confining pressure by the removal of overlying layers of rock/overburden. Pop-ups, on the other hand,
are generally considered to be older features, related
to the removal of glacial ice loads.

Section 2, due to the Carrara marbles tectonometamorphic deformation history, it also has three
principal planes of weakness: the verso, secondo and
contro planes. Additionally, in some locations, the
marble contains a high in situ stress field, especially
at the Carlone quarry (Coli et al., 2010). The authors
note that, There are two types of rockburst, i.e. delay rockburst and instantaneous rockburst. The rockburst which occurred in Carrara marble laboratory
samples belongs to the delay rockburst corresponding to the stress concentration after excavation in the
field. The laboratory test shows a critical stress of
max= 50 MPa for the rockburst of Carrara marble.

Buckling of surface slabs at a quarry floor is


caused by pre-existing in situ horizontal stress
after the overlying rock has been removed
and the vertical stress reduced to a zero value

Figure 16. When a new quarry floor is exposed and the overburden load thus removed, a pre-existing horizontal stress can
cause the surface slab to buckle.
Figure 18. The Carlone quarry in Italy: (from Coli et al., 2010).

4.2 Underground quarries

Figure 17. Underground rooms at a marble quarry in Portugal.

In the case of underground quarries such as that


illustrated in Figure 17, the effect of the in situ rock
stress is the same as that in other underground openings, i.e. rock spalling when the concentrated rock
stress around the opening reaches the in situ rock
strengthand rockbursts when the pre-existing rock
stresses have high values.
An example of the latter is the rockburst occurrence at the Carrara marble quarries in Italy (Coli et
al., 2010). In a similar way to the anisotropic granite
which has the grain, rift and hardway as described in

Figure 19. Rockburst during development work for the underground Carlone quarry in the Carrara marble, Italy, from Coli et
al. (2010).

The topographic setting of the Carlone quarry is


shown in Figure 18 and the aftermath of a rockburst
shown in Figure 19. In the case of underground quarries, where there is usually some flexibility in developing the geometry of the openings and in the case
of a high stress field in the rock mass, the potential
for such rockbursts can be significantly alleviated by
aligning the tunnels and caverns parallel to the direction of the maximum principal stress component.
6

This procedure reduces the magnitude of the stress


concentrations and hence the severity of rockbursts.
Note, however, that such alignment for stress reduction may conflict with the optimal alignment for
block extraction, given the micro-anisotropy of the
rock.
5 THE PRESENCE OF WATER
When an excavation is made in a rock mass, there
are three primary effects:
the rock moves inwards slightly because a cavity
has been created; this movement can be small if it
is simply elastic unloading, or it can be large if
rock blocks are released as has been illustrated in
Figures 9 & 10;
the in situ stress field is considerably altered because the newly excavated surfaces become principal stress planes (because these free surfaces do
not sustain shear stresses); and
the excavation, being at atmospheric pressure, becomes a sink for water.
From the last point above, the process of quarrying, i.e. creating excavations in a rock mass, will increase any water flow into the excavations. It is now
possible to use computer models to simulate such
flow (e.g. Zhang & Sanderson, 2002; Franciss,
2010), although this is only possible if the fracture
systems in the rock mass can be adequately characterised.
A small-scale hydrogeological study was conducted by Lemieux (2006) in a fractured carbonate
rock aquifer located in a quarry to relate groundwater flow to the fracture network. The authors state
that, The field study in the St-Eustache quarry,
which integrates structural surveys, well logging and
hydraulic tests, showed that the most important features that affect groundwater flow in the sedimentary
aquifer are high hydraulic conductivity horizontal
bedding planes. Vertical fractures are abundant in
the quarry and throughout the region, but they have a
minor effect on groundwater flow.
Horizontal flow in sedimentary rocks is likely to
dominate, but the flow in igneous and more complexly fractured rocks is more difficult to model and
predict. However, for both new and existing quarries, the geological information on the nature and
occurrence of the fracture system is crucial for such
analyses.
In a karst region, the prediction of water flow can
become further complicated by the presence of irregular, large flow channels, although the understanding of karst geology is now much improved. A
recent book Karst in China by Lu (2012) provides
a complete overview of the development and properties of karst geology, plus defensive strategies when
engineering on and in karst geology.

6 CONCLUSIONS
The geological factors discussed in relation to quarry
design have been
intact rock properties,
rock fractures,
in situ rock stress, and
the presence of water.
The implications for quarry design are straightforward, although the implementation of these will
depend on whether the quarry is for aggregate material or for building stone.
For a quarry excavating building stone, anisotropy in the intact rock can have a major influence on
the quarry layout and excavation techniques, as was
illustrated earlier in the paper for the Grabinex quarry case example. However, for an aggregate quarry,
any anisotropy in the intact rock is unlikely to be of
major concern.
The potential for rock fractures to enable planar
and wedge sliding or toppling to occur is important
for bench and overall quarry stability. Once these
possibilities have been evaluated, the plan shape of
the quarry can be optimised to reduce major intabilities by adopting a defensive layoutin particular by
using an elliptical plan shape, rather than a circular
one. A circular quarry will have quarry faces in all
directions; however, an elliptical quarry can reduce
the instabilities by arranging for the worst potential
cases to be located at the regions of greatest curvature, hence minimising their occurrence.
If the quarry is located in a region of high rock
stress, a surface quarry can suffer from surface strata
buckling (Figure 16), but this is a rather rare phenomenon. On the other hand, the rooms in an underground quarry can suffer from spalling and even
rockbursts, as has occurred at the Cararra quarry in
Italy. As a general principle, it is best to orientate the
long axis of underground excavations parallel to the
direction of maximum principal stress, and hence reduce the stress concentrations around the openings.
The presence of water can be difficult in some
quarry situations necessitating continuous pumping,
but establishing the presence of any major water
bearing fractures in the rock mass beforehand may
enable the overall quarry geometry to be designed
together with grouting of the major fractures to minimise the water inflow.
All these factors are readily determinable from a
geological study of a proposed quarry site and the
consequential defensive strategies are straightforward. It is therefore strongly recommended that the
geological factors are established and the associated
quarry design implemented to reduce the possibilities of major quarry problems. The use of the geological information leads to good engineering practice and the associated economic benefits,

Acknowledgements

REFERENCES

The author is very grateful to the Grabinex company


and especially the President, Ryszard Chciski, the
Mine Manager, Mr Stanislaw Paluch, and Translator
Mr Janusz Kurc for their kindness in explaining the
Grabinex granite quarry operation in Poland and for
allowing photographs to be taken at the site.

Coli, M., Livi, E., Berry, P., Bandini, A., He, M. & Jia, X.
2010. Rockburst prediction in the Carrara marble quarry, Italy. International Society for Rock Mechanics News Journal: 5154.
Damjanac, B. & Fairhurst, C. 2009. Evidence for a long-term
strength threshold in crystalline rock. Itasca Report for
SKB, Stockholm, Sweden.
Feng, X. T. & Hudson, J. A. 2011. Rock engineering design.
London: CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group.
Franciss, F.O. 2010. Fractured rock hydraulics. London: CRC
Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
La Pointe, P. R. & Hudson, J. A. 1985. Characterization and interpretation of rock mass jointing patterns. Special Paper
199 of the Geological Society of America.
Lemieux, J-M., Therrien, R. & Kirkwood, D. 2006. Small
scale study of groundwater flow in a fractured carbonaterock aquifer at the St-Eustache quarry, Quebec, Canada.
Hydrogeology Journal 14: 603612.
Lu, Y. 2012. Karst in China. Beijing: Higher Education Press
Beijing.
Steck C.D. 1999. Surficial neotectonic faults and folds in
Southwestern and Central Ohio. MSc thesis. Ohio State
University, USA
Yukiyasu Fujii, Takato Takemura, Manabu Takahashi &
Weiren Lin. 2007. Surface features of uniaxial tensile fractures and their relation to rock anisotropy in Inada granite.
International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44: 98107.
Zang, X. & Sanderson, D.J. 2002. Numerical modelling and
analysis of fluid flow and deformation of fractured rock
masses. Oxford: Pergamon, Elsevier Science.

You might also like