Evaluation of Limestone Quarry Quality, Planning and Slope Design in Dangote Limetone Quarry, Mugher Area
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Date
2018-06-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study area is found in western Ethiopia in Oromia Region State Mugher area. It is covered by mostly sedimentary and few volcanic rocks. In open pit mining method most of the time the excavation process is mostly so random that it has its own impact on the quality and excavation time. Because of the random excavation process the limestone is mixed with quaternary basalt and large amount of overburden. And also some large limestone boulders affect the working area of logistics. Such problems can be solved by designing the slope stability of the site. Apart from this problem the quality of the limestone is one of the important factor to be considered. It’s based on these classification the possible industrial usage of the limestone is made. Thus the main objective of the research is to evaluate limestone quarry planning and slope design. Moreover, the research aims to make safe cut slope design and determine quality of rocks for different field of application. To achieve the research objectives, collecting samples of rocks, RMR data, were done based on lithology, color, and structure and area coverage of each exposed section collected from the mining places for slope design and quality evaluation. The data were treated with the help of Rocscience.RocPlane.v2.029 software for determine possible mode failure. Furthermore the slope design of the quarry site was done based on Datamine studio 3.21 software. The average result of RMR determination the result lays under fair rock mass classification (50 – 60%). According to the field data, it’s possible to conclude that all the joint sets could not affect the stability of the Dangote limestone quarry excavation. The simulation result shows that there is no possible mode of failure in every critical slope sections. Since the large amount of ore body is indicated from the northwest direction, the sequential direction of excavation have to start along northwest direction for the long term quarry planning and cost effectiveness. The average value of each major oxide mineral of rock from XRF results are: CaO < 47.6wt. %, MgO > 3wt. %, SiO2 > 2wt. %, Fe2O3 > 1wt%. Hence, according to BGS standard classification it lies under impurity limestone. Therefore, it used for Mineral wool and natural cements on (subject to the silica/clay mineral ratio)
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Keywords
Slope Design, Rmr, Limestone Quarry, Kinematic Analysis, Xrf, Open Pit