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Rock stress tensor measurements at the El Teniente Mine, Chile

C. R. Windsor
CRC Mining, Western Australian School of Mines, Kalgoorlie, Australia

P. Cavieres
Geomechanics Department, Codelco-El Teniente Division, Rancagua, Chile

E. Villaescusa
CRC Mining, Western Australian School of Mines, Kalgoorlie, Australia

J. Pereira
Geology Department, Codelco-El Teniente Division, Rancagua, Chile

ABSTRACT: At the El Teniente Mine situated in the Andes Mountains of central Chile, stress tensor measurements have been conducted at over 150 sites using different stress measurement techniques. However,
definition of the local and regional stress field is difficult due to the large mining footprint and surface crater,
characteristic of caving operations, the effects of stress redistribution due to mine voids and mountainous topography. As part of the investigation and planning for the future mining the stress tensor database has been
extended to include deeper stress measurements made by the Acoustic Emission (AE) technique. The stress
tensors in the El Teniente Stress database are analysed and measurements thought not to be greatly affected
by mining are selected and compared in an attempt to define the contemporary stress field.

1 INTRODUCTION
The El Teniente copper mine is located in the Andes Mountains, at a latitude of S 3505 and a longitude of W 7021. The mean altitude is 2100 m
above sea level (m.a.s.l.). The nearest city is Rancagua, situated 37 km to the SW of the mine.
The mine has been in production for the last 100
years. Current production is 131,000 tons per day of
copper ore with an average grade of 1.01%, producing 479,174 tons of copper fines per year. To date,
close to 1,375 millions tonnes of 1.52% grade has
been extracted from the orebody and total reserves
included in the Long Term Mining Plan (2006 to
2087) are c.a. 4,300 million tons with an average
grade of 0.91%.
Different techniques of stress measurement have
been used in the past at El Teniente. Early overcoring measurements started in 1971 using the USBM
Deformation Gauge (USBM DG) which has been
described by Merrill (1967). In 1985 overcoring
with the CSIR Doorstopper (CSIR DS) was introduced and has been described by Leeman (1971).
Since 1991, overcoring using the CSIRO Hollow Inclusion (CSIRO HI) described by Worotnicki and
Walton (1976) has been the main measurement technique. To date, over 140 stress measurements have
been made at different sites with access for overcoring limited by existing galleries within the mine.

In late 2005, deeper measurements were made on


oriented core using WASM Acoustic Emission
(WASM AE) which has been described by Villaescusa et al. (2002). These measurements were conducted at depths down to 1700 m.a.s.l., which is beneath the lowest mine level (Teniente 8 at 1982
m.a.s.l.). The information obtained at these depths is
important for engineering studies concerning the New
Mine Level Project. This project considers exploitation of a rock volume defined by an Undercut Level
located between 240 and 330 meters below the current production levels (Cavieres and Pereira, 2005).
2 GEOLOGICAL AND GEOTECHNICAL
SETTING
The orebody at El Teniente mine comprises mainly
the El Teniente Mafic Complex (CMET, Andesite),
Dacite Porphyry, Tonalite, Diorite Porphyry and the
Breccia Braden Complex. The geotechnical properties of the intact rock are included in Table A and
the rock mass properties are shown in Table B (produced by Pereira J. in 2005).
The geology of the mine area and the deposit emplacement has been comprehensively described by
Skewes et al. (2002). In this brief discussion the
main structural geology issue to bear in mind is that
the Braden Breccia Pipe and the surrounding deposit
lie within a wide, sub-vertical, shear zone, striking
ENE-WSW.

Table A: Intact Rock Geotechnical Properties, El Teniente Mine

Parameters
Youngs Modulus [GPa]
Poisson Ratio
Density [ton/m3]
Porosity [%]
UCS [MPa]
Ti [MPa]
E / UCS
UCS / Ti
mi (Hoek & Brown)
ci [MPa]
ti [MPa]
Cohesion [MPa]
Friction Angle []

CMET

Dacite Porphyry

Tonalite and
Diorite Porphyry

Breccia Braden

60
0.16
2.80
4.40
120
14
500
8.6
9.1
118
13
23
38

30
0.18
2.62
3.00
110
12
273
9.2
20.2
112
6
19
48

45
0.21
2.73
4.70
140
15
321
9.3
9.2
125
13
23
38

25
0.23
2.61
7.70
90
6
278
15
11.6
72
6
10
39

Table B: Rock Mass Geotechnical Properties, El Teniente Mine

CMET

Dacite Porphyry

Tonalite and
Diorite Porphyry

Breccia Braden

36

24

36

20

Poisson Ratio

0.21

0.20

0.26

0.28

mb (Hoek & Brown)

4.5

10.8

4.5

8.6

s (Hoek & Brown)

0.1

0.14

0.11

0.43

a (Hoek & Brown)

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

c-rm [MPa]

49

60

42

50

t-rm [MPa]

Cohesion [MPa]

Friction Angle []

37

45

37

41

70-85

75-90

70-90

85-100

Parameters
Youngs Modulus [GPa]

GSI

Cladouhos (1994) termed this the El Teniente


Shear Zone (ETSZ) and proposed that it could represent a transfer fault between adjacent thrust blocks.
3 MINING ACTIVITIES
3.1 Mining method
Two types of rock mass have been defined at El
Teniente. One is termed the secondary rock mass
which is located near the surface. This rock mass is
weak, produces a small fragmentation size and the
average copper grade is high. The primary rock
mass is a more competent rock mass which produces
a coarser fragmentation and a lower copper grade.
Instabilities around galleries include overbreak, fall
of large wedges, collapse and induced seismicity, all
associated with exploitation of the primary rock
mass.

Massive exploitation started in 1905 using a


mixed Shrinkage Stopping and Pillar Caving
method. In 1946, Block Caving commenced and is
still the exploitation method applied for the remains
of the secondary rock mass which is estimated to
end in 2006. The exploitation of the primary rock
mass started in the Teniente 4 South sector in 1982
and it has been massively mined out. The mining
method used is Panel Caving with LHD equipment
in the production levels using larger section galleries
and an increased drawpoint spacing. At present, the
total primary ore production is close to the 65% and
will reach 100% by 2022 when all the productive
sector reserves will exploit this rock type.
3.2 Mine geometry
A non-mineralized central body, the Braden Breccia
or Braden Pipe, with a circular horizontal section,
defines the orebody configuration. The main infrastructure components of the mine, including the

tion defined by mining around the Braden Breccia


Pipe.
The scalar relationships between the three principal stress vectors are shown in Figure 2. This graph
indicates reasonably consistent relationships which
are associated with local rock mass strength limits.
In fact this data allows a triaxial bound to be determined on rock mass strength (this is the subject of
ongoing research and will be discussed in another
publication on stress and strength reconciliation).

1000

500

-500

-1000
0

500

1000

1500

2000

Figure 1. Scaled major principal stresses in mine grid coordinates.


80

1 versus 3
1 versus 2

70

Principal Normal Stress (2 and 3 , MPa)

principal shafts, ore passes, maintenance facilities


and offices are located within Braden Breccia Pipe.
The geometry of the Braden Pipe is an inverted cone
with an inclined upper surface that follows the surface topography. Its diameter is variable, and ranges
from a maximum value close to 1000 meters at the
top (2,940 m.a.s.l.) down to 600 meters in the lowest
levels (1,740 m.a.s.l.). The mineralized zone around
the Braden Breccia Pipe has a maximum extension
of about 700 meters. The mineralized limit depends
on the current cut-off grade at 0.6% copper.
The mine exploitation has been achieved by
means of a massive gravitational caving which generates a large subsidence crater. The mining sequence has descended around the Braden Breccia
Pipe with current productive sectors located at different levels. In relation to the original topography
these sectors are situated at depths ranging from 290
m (Quebrada Teniente sector) and 990 m (eastern
border of the Esmeralda sector).
The mine geometry has produced a complex configuration of cavities, within an environment that includes different geotechnical units with some preexisting relevant geological structures and severe
surface topography. The understanding of the deep
mine stress field is a challenge due to the macrocavity effects associated with and the new production sectors to be located at lower levels. A large 3D numerical stress analysis is planned to model the
mine and the stress field and this model will be validated and calibrated using the existing stress measurement database.
Currently, deepening of the mine is being considered in order to support the Long Term Mining Plan
of the El Teniente Division. For this purpose, the
New Mine Level Project will be incorporated, with
the undercutting level located at 1,880 m.a.s.l.
The ability to conduct deeper stress measurements using WASM AE on oriented core was considered and in late 2005, six WASM AE measurements were completed (Villaescusa et al. 2005).
These measurements were conducted at 5 sites accessed from underground galleries (using three different orientations of borehole core) plus one site
accessed from the surface at another unique borehole
orientation. In the following sections, the stress
measurement results are described and an attempt is
made to compare the WASM AE results with the
three new CSIRO HI results and other stress measurement results from the database.

3 versus 2

60

50

40

30

20

10

4 STRESS MEASUREMENT RESULTS


The stress tensors from the El Teniente Mine stress
database are numerous and spread over a 4.4 square
km area. The major principal stress vectors from the
database are projected onto the horizontal plane in
Figure 1. This shows the measured stress distribu-

0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Principal Normal Stress (1 & 3, MPa)

Figure 2. Relationships between the principal stress magnitudes.

the unmined Braden Breccia Pipe,


Teniente 8 at maximum depth, and
the Rio Blanco Tunnel which lies to the
south of the mine and outside the ETSZ.
Consequently, these measurement groups are selected for comparison with the deeper, WASM AE
results and all indicate reasonable vertical stress
measures in comparison to the theoretical value
shown previously in Figure 3.

Principal Stress (MPa)


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

-200

-400

-600

-800
Depth (m)

Figure 3 shows the measured vertical stress, resolved from the stress tensor versus the calculated
vertical stress, taking into account the density and
height of both broken and solid rock above the point
in question. Figure 3 clearly indicates that many of
the stress measurements have been affected by stress
redistribution associated with mining activity. Here
it is worthwhile noting that the stress tensor measured depends on, amongst other things, the position
of the measurement point in relation to the cave
front, the periphery of the subsidence crater and the
configuration of immediately adjacent voids.
Closer assessment of Figure 3 indicates that some
measurements of vertical stress accord reasonable
well with the calculated vertical stress. These stress
measurements have all been determined by CSIRO
HI and include two groups of measurements within
and one group outside the ETSZ. The measurements
were obtained from within:

S1 - Braden Brecha
S2 - Braden Brecha
S3 - Braden Brecha
S1 - Teniente 8
S2 - Teniente 8
S3 - Teniente 8
S1 - AE
S2 - AE
S3 - AE
S1 - Rio Blanco Tunnel
S2 - Rio Blanco Tunnel
S3 - Rio Blanco Tunnel
Sv - Theory
Linear (S2 - AE)
Linear (S3 - AE)
Linear (S1 - AE)
Linear (Sv - Theory)

-1000

-1200

-1400

-1600

-1800

-2000

Figure 4. Principal stress magnitude distributions with depth.


70

Outside Caved Zone


Beneath Caved Zone
Teniente 8
Braden Brecha
WASM AE
Rio Blanco Tunnel

Calculated Vertical Stress (MPa)

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Measured Vertical Stress (Mpa)

Figure 3. Calculated versus measured vertical stress.

The distribution of principal stress magnitudes with


depth from these groups of measurements are compared in Figure 4. This graph shows that there is
reasonable correlation between the principal stress
magnitudes with depth.

The distribution of principal stress orientations


for the 3 Braden Breccia Pipe measurements, the 3
Teniente 8 measurements and the 6 WASM AE
measurements, all within the ETSZ are compared in
Figure 5 (using the same symbols defined in Figure
4). Figure 5 indicates that the major principal stress
is oriented NNW-SSE or approximately sub- perpendicular to the ETSZ. Some of the measurements
obtained by the CSIRO HI within the mine may
have been rotated in the vertical plane by the effects
of the cave and crater above the measurement point.
The six WASM AE results, regardless of the three
different borehole sampling orientations or their position; all indicate a shallow dipping major principal
stress oriented NNW-SSE.
Figure 6 shows the results from five stress measurements, all made in the same radial cross section
from within the Rio Blanco Tunnel and outside of
the ETSZ, indicate a shallow dipping major principal stress oriented E-W to ENE-WSW, which is approximately parallel to the Nazca Plate South
American Plate convergence direction.

Some groups of measurements, all somewhat


separated from adjacent mining, appear not
to be greatly affected by mining activity.

These measurement groups accord well with


respect to the distribution of the three principal stress magnitudes with depth.

Those measurement groups that lie within


the ETSZ (comprising 12 stress tensors) accord reasonably well with respect to the distribution of the three principal stress orientations. The major principal stress appears to
be shallow dipping and oriented approximately NNW-SSE or sub- perpendicular to
the strike of the ETSZ

The measurement group that lies outside the


ETSZ (comprising 5 stress tensors) accord
reasonably well with respect to the distribution of the three principal stress orientations.
The major principal stress appears to be shallow to moderately dipping and oriented approximately E-W to ENE-WSW or subparallel to the strike of the ETSZ. This is
also sub-parallel the Nazca Plate South
American Plate convergence direction.

The principal stress field orientation appears


to be partitioned by the dominant ETSZ
structure.

Figure 5. Principal stress orientations measured by WASM AE


at 6 sites (black), CSIRO HI at 3 sites in Teniente 8 (grey) and
3 sites in the Braden Brecha Pipe (white), all within the ETSZ.

Figure 6. Principal stress orientations measured by CSIRO HI


from within the Rio Blanco Tunnel and outside of the ETSZ.

5 CONCLUSIONS
Brief descriptions and comparisons have been
given between the stress tensors measured by different techniques in the El Teniente Mine stress data
base. The findings from this work indicate:

Many of the stress measurement results appear to be affected by mining activity, as


would be expected.

Collectively these findings suggest that the mine


region within the ETSZ may be in a condition of almost, pure dextral shear imposed by the geometry
and mechanics of ENE subduction of the Nazca
Plate beneath the WSW displacing South American
Plate.
If this is the case then, it has important consequences for the appropriate arrangement of forcedisplacement boundary conditions in the planned 3D
numerical stress analysis model. This issue was
considered so important that an attempt has been
made to reconcile these measurements with previous
overcoring stress measurements, structural geology,
fault displacement vectors, surface displacement
vectors and seismicity on regional and local scales.
The results of this study are given in a companion
paper within these Symposium Proceedings, Windsor, et.al. (2006).
The work described here forms part of research
aimed at better defining the stress field at El
Teniente Mine in preparation for future numerical
modelling and mine planning. Attention, is now
concentrating on an attempt to reconcile strain,
structure, strength, stress within the ETSZ on the local mine to microscopic scales. This includes simple, pure shear displacement models and simple,
combined shear and normal displacement models for

testing the ETSZ response en masse. Of particular


interest are the imposed shear stress conditions
within the ETSZ in relation to the existing structural
orientations and the release of stored energy through
seismic events, on various scales.
6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge the management of El
Teniente Mine and Codelco Chile for their permission to publish the data and for enabling and financing this work. We would like to thank the various
staff at El Teniente Division of Codelco Chile who
assisted in field preparations and staff at WASM,
Curtin University, Australia who assisted in the
stress measurement work, in particular, J. Li, L. Machuca and L. Fraser. We also acknowledge the efforts of previous workers in this subject area at El
Teniente Division and Codelco Chile and for providing the foundations for this work.
7 REFERENCES
Cavieres, P. and Pereira J. 2005. Confidencial unpublished information, El Teniente Mine New Mine Level Project,
Codelco Contract 4500549222.
Cladouhos, T. 1994. Fault kinematics near the El Teniente
Mine.
Project Report to Proyecto Geodinamico, El
Teniente, Codelco, Chile. p. 29.
Leeman, E.R.1971. The CSIR Doorstopper and triaxial rock
stress measuring instruments. Rock Mech., V. 3, N.1, pp.
25-50.
Merrill, R.H., 1967. Three component borehole deformation
gauge for determining the stress in rock. US Bureau of
Mines R.I. 7015.
Skewes, M.A., Arevalo, A., Floody, R., Zuniga, P. and Stern,
C.R. 2002. The giant El Teniente breccia deposit: Hypergene copper distribution and emplacement. Economic Geology, Special Publication. V.9., pp. 299-332.
Skewes, M.A., Arevalo, A., Floody, R., Zuniga, P. and Stern,
C.R. 2002. The giant El Teniente breccia deposit: Hypergene copper distribution and emplacement. Economic Geology, Special Publication. V.9., pp. 299-332.
Villaescusa, E., Windsor, C.R., Li, J., 2005. Stress measurements from oriented core using the Acoustic Emission
method. Confidential Research Report to El Teniente
Mine, Codelco, Rancagua, Chile. WASM, Curtin University: Kalgoorlie, Australia. p.43.
Windsor, C.R., Caviares P., Villaescusa, E. and Pereira, J.
2006. Reconciliation of Strain, Structure and Stress in the
El Teniente Mine Region, Chile. Proceedings of International Symposium on In Situ Rock Stress, Trondheim, Norway, June 19 21, 2006 (this symposium).
Worotnicki, G. and Walton, R. J., 1976. Triaxial Hollow Inclusion gauges for determination of rock stresses in situ.
Proc. ISRM Symp. on Investigation of Stresses in Rock
Advances in Stress Measurement: pp. 1-8. I.E. Aust., Nat.
Conf. Pub. No. 76/4.

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