Understanding rock mass behavior—Microseismic monitoring gives mining engineers’ information about the local state and stress conditions of the rock mass. By receiving real-time information on the location of seismic events, engineers and operators can learn where these events are occurring relative to mine openings and active workplaces and visualize how these conditions are changing over time. By understanding how the rock mass is behaving, operators can infer which mining activities are affecting the overall structure, and by how much.

Enhanced workplace safety—ESG’s microseismic monitoring systems are used in mines around the world to enhance workplace safety. A seismic monitoring program can be used to identify potential hazards caused by changing rock conditions. In particular, microseismic monitoring can detect abnormal seismic activity that could be a precursor to dangerous events such as rock bursts, rock falls or fault slips.
If abnormal or heightened seismic activity is detected, workers can be deployed away from actively seismic areas to other quieter areas of the mine. The advanced notification of potential dangerous events minimizes both the exposure of the workforce to these hazards as well as downtime from unplanned delays.
Microseismic mine monitoring also provides the additional benefit of alleviating the concerns of the workforce when abnormal or unexpected levels of seismicity occur. They can radio up to ground control and find out exactly where these events are occurring.

Optimize mine design, sequencing, and operations—If a microseismic monitoring system is deployed early in the life of the mine, it can become a valuable tool for mine sequence optimization. Through use of seismic monitoring, operators and engineers can gain knowledge of the rock mass more quickly and get a better idea of how ground conditions are changing. They can use this information to make changes to the mine design and sequencing at an earlier stage, (when such changes are still possible) in response to how the rock is behaving.
Microseismic data can also be used as a parameter to validate pre-existing geomechanical mining models and increase decision-making confidence. Mining operations and methodology can then be adjusted in response to modeled predictions.