Bingham Canyon Landslide: Analysis and Mitigation

Abstract

On April 10, 2013, a major landslide happened at Bingham CanyonMine near Salt Lake City, Utah. The Manefay Slide has been called thelargest non-volcanic landslide in modern North American history, as itis estimated it displaced more than 145 million tons of material. Noinjuries or loss of life were recorded during the incident; however,the loss of valuable operating time has a number of slope stabilityexperts wondering how to prevent future large-scale slope failure inopen pit mines. This comprehensive study concerns the analysis of thelandslide at Bingham Canyon Mine and the mitigation of future, largescaleslope failures. The Manefay Slide was modeled into a twodimensional,limit equilibrium analysis program to find thecontrolling factors behind the slope failure. It was determined theManefay Slide was a result of movement along a saturated, beddingplane with centralized argillic alteration. Recommendations formitigating future slope failure are provided based on the results ofthe limit equilibrium analyses.