FOCUS ON: SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATIONS FOR 33 MINERS

_ MINE SAFETY

REFERENCE PROJECTS
TRAPPED IN THE SAN JOSÉ MINE CHILE •
•
Collahuasi Mine – Chile
Escondida Mine – Chile
•
•
San Jose’ Mine – Chile
El Porvenir Mine – Nicaragua
• Antamina Mine – Perù • Embalse Caren - Chile

• Radomito Tomic Mine – Chile
The 2010 San José mining accident, also known as the “Chilean mining • Chuquicamata Mine – Chile
accident”, began in the afternoon of Thursday, 5 August 2010 as a • El Teniente Mine - Chile
significant cave-in at the troubled 121 years-old San José copper–gold • Phosagro/Apatit Mine - Russia
mine. The buried men, who became known as “Los 33”, were trapped • Gran Colombia gold Mine – Colombia
700 meters underground and about 5 kilometers from the mine’s • Aitik Mine – Sweden
• Quellaveco Mine- Peru’
entrance via spiraling underground service ramps.
• Centinela Mine – Chile
AND MONITORING
• Coal Drama Mine – Greece
• Pascua Lama Mine – Chile
• Cerrejon Mine - Colombia
• Kevitsa Mine - Finland
• Cisneros gold Mine - Colombia
• El Soldado Mine -Chile
• Mikhailovskiy Mine - Russia
• Wieliczka Salt Mine - Poland

MINING
• Stratoni Mine - Greece • Las Cenizas Mine - Chile
The mixed crew of experienced miners and technical support personnel • Premier Mine - South Africa • Valsora Mine - Italy
subsequently survived for a record 69 days deep underground before • Letlhakane Mine – Botswana • Ruggetta Mine - Italy
their rescue. SISGEO and Geosinergia (Sisgeo’s Chilean Distributor), • Arab Potash project – Jordan • Milos Island Mines - Greece
were invited to cooperate in rescue operations focused on “using • Antioquia Gold Mine – Colombia • Realmonte Mine - Italy
geotechnical instruments to ensure monitored risk control of all • Cullinan Mine – South Africa • Petralia Mine – Italy
unstable dynamic geomechanical conditions”.

Vibrating wire crackmeters, borehole extensometers, vibrating wire

strain gauges, cables and Sisgeo Dataloggers were used to monitor
the latent cave-in risk throughout search and rescue operations for the
miners. Moreover, both new cracks and over excavations were always Multipoint extensometer intallation
measured, monitored and detected in time to enable engineering
actions to be promptly implemented on a day-to-day basis by exploiting Installation of MEXID extensometer into the cavern’s ceiling
the data collected.

Geosinergia was experienced in recovering caved-in mining projects,

had already made use of geotechnical instruments and had carried
MINE SAFETY
out extensive underground excavation works at the world’s largest
mine, Chuquicamata: here many Sisgeo instruments such as load
AND MONITORING
cells, vibrating wire strain gauges and pressure cells were installed, The mining sector face many unique challenges that no other industry experiences.
ranking the site as the sole excavation project in the world to have been The robustness and accuracy of our instruments make them ideal for the geotechnical and hydrological
recovered. applications, the slope stability analysis, the dam, tailing and cavern monitoring, the roof and shaft stability.

THE MONITORING PURPOSES MAIN MINE TYPES

Analysis of the acquired data
DEX-S inclino-extensometer
installation, Chuquicamata Mine, Chile
WR-Log installation in Varangéville
Salines Mine, France
DEX-S inclino-extensometer installation,
150 mt depth, in Ptolemaida Mine,
Greece+
• For the mine safety and quality control • Underground mines
• To integrate the usual soil investigations and geophysical tests • Open Pit Mines
• To anticipate some unexpected factors that may generate • Tailing Dams/Waste Dumps
anomalies
• To prevent the risks with an “Early Warning System”
• To increase and to improve the production minimizing the risks
•

MINE SAFETY AND MONITORING_EN_00_05/2022

For the maintenance of the mine in operation
• For the legal protection from phenomena that can put the
DISCOVER OUR WORLD ON WWW.SISGEO.COM contractor/owner at risk
Courtesy of Mr Igor Bravo,

SISGEO HEADQUARTER
Geosinergia Co. Ltd.

Via F. Serpero 4/F1 - 20060 Masate (MI) - Italy

Tel. +39-02.95.76.41.30
info@sisgeo.com All the information in this document is the property of Sisgeo S.r.l. and should not be used without permission from Sisgeo S.r.l.
This material or any portion of this material may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, edited, or modified without our express
written content. We reserve the right to change our products without prior notice.
 INSTRUMENTS PURPOSES INSTRUMENTS PURPOSES

UNDERGROUND MINE OPEN PIT MINE TAILING DAM/WASTE DUMP

Multipoint piezometer Monitoring of the pore water Magnetic detector Manual monitoring of the
pressure at different levels probe settlement’s evolution

Temperature string Monitoring the temperature in the

Digital LT-Inclibus Check of the structural or ground
same vertical at different depths
horizontal/vertical displacement

Multipoint Settlement monitoring

B.r.a.in Monitoring of the ground horizontal
settlement system
inclinometer system displacement and slope stability

Geodetic survey point Topographic control of structural

Digital DEX-S 3D borehole automatic profiling
displacements

PIEGA
inclino-extensometer

Digital MD-Profile High-accuracy profile monitoring

Vented pressure Measuring automatically the water
system for slope stability
transducer table level

Total pressure cell Total pressure between the tailing

Inclino-settlement Monitoring both vertical and
dam body and foundations
column horizontal ground displacements
or within the embankment
f 0 390001 in the same borehole
0,0

Digital H-Level Differential settlement

10 0

Vibrating wire Control the pore-water pressure

20 0
0

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30,0

settlement system monitoring of structures

piezometer in rocks or grounds
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[mm] ,

Ref.B - .

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,

Deep 18.5 FEET

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GO

SALVA
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50 0

Digital tiltmeter Check of the rocks

60 0

Titanium piezometer Monitoring the pore-water

00

or structures tilting
pressure in corrosive field

Digital Mexid Monitoring of displacements and/or

Seepage V-Notch Evaluation of water seepage
extensometer settlements at different depths
flowmeter

Vibrating wire strain Check of the concrete

Wire crackmeter Monitoring the movement
gauge stress conditions
of wide cracks or joints

3-Port pipe union Monitoring the pore-water

pressure acting around the tunnel

REDOUT AND DATALOGGERS Radial and tangential Monitoring the radial

pressure cells and tangential stresses
MIND readout

Anchor load cell Check of the load acting on rockbolt

IMPORTANT: All drawings are not to scale

OMNIAlog multichannel
datalogger

WR Log wireless system

The readout units and dataloggers are an sensor types and gauges supporting vibrating
READING essential part of the monitoring system. wire, MEMS and digital sensors, and all major

SOLUTIONS The readouts are needed during the installation

procedures, in order to check any instruments
geotechnical instruments.

AND DATA before and after their installation, or when an
automatic monitoring solution is not required.
COLLECTION MIND readout is the new portable multichannel
readout unit able to read and store data from
both digital and analogue instruments, via its
MIND App.
Dataloggers and wireless solutions are ideal
for the automatic and remote monitoring in
MINE SAFETY AND MONITORING any geotechnical conditions. OMNIAlog and
WRLog dataloggers offer precise measurement
www.sisgeo.com and reliable data acquisition from various
Sisgeo can also offer a dedicated service
DISCOVER
for data/measurement management from
automatic and manual monitoring systems
ALL THE PRODUCTS
called A.I.D.A. (powered by ).
The electric signals of the instruments are
captured by the Data Acquisition Units, sent
to a Server and later imported to a dedicated
Database, where they are divided by project,
instruments and measurements. Data are then
MINE SAFETY AND MONITORING
converted into engineering units, validated,
processed and represented in charts and table www.sisgeo.com
format.