There are a number of geotechnical systems used at open cut operations of Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business unit in Australia. These systems are mainly mine site specific, based on geological information and used as hazard plans. They are qualitative and reliant upon the experienced judgement of site based engineers and the general workforce. They are not suitable for calculating the associated risks of geological structures and mining responses. A uniform risk rating system that can be used to provide an unbiased, standard and quantifiable assessment of the risk from highwall and lowwall failures is therefore developed using the experience gained with such systems in Anglo American’s South African operations. This system is a semi-quantitative risk rating system and takes into account the relative differences in the importance of hazards as experienced at each mine site as a result of different
