The need of using the underground space was limited in the human history, but in the last century and due to the increase of world population, the use of the underground space has become essential. Underground metro stations, deep garages, tunnels and basements, etc... are examples of using the underground space inside the cities. The use of underground space is conducted through deep excavation or tunneling. Several techniques are used to conduct the deep excavation and one of the most popular and well known techniques used for deep excavation is the diaphragm walling technique which is widely used specially inside the cities to safe space because it requires a very small space to conduct a deep reinforced concreted wall under the ground. However, the construction of such walls causes deformation of the surrounding ground and it could also affect the nearby existing structures. In some recorded cases the slurry trench failed and causes a great deformation which effect the nearby structures. However, Minor damages and cracks were observed in buildings near stable slurry trenches, because the soil deformation was high. The existing structures inside the cities have been constructed on shallow or deep foundations and this research was oriented to study the effect of diaphragm wall installation on the existing adjacent piled foundation. Very limited studies were made to investigate such an effect. At Cambridge university centrifuge model tests were conducted to investigate the effect of slurry reduction on single piles. Field observation was conducted in several projects and showed the settlement and deformation of buildings located on deep foundation during the diaphragm wall trenching. Numerical analysis was conducted using FLAC 3D to simulate the laboratory and the available field works. FLAC 3D is a commercial software and it depend in its analysis on finite difference method. The purpose of the simulation was to verify the used numerical analysis method. The results from the numerical analysis were in a good agreement with the available field data results, and they were also in good agreement with the laboratory test results regarding soil settlement but it was not in such good agreement when they were compared regarding the pile. Generally, from the verification the numerical analysis method is considered to be reliable. A parametric study was performed using the verified numerical analysis method. The flexible nature of the numerical analysis allows to simulate different cases and to study a variety of parameters. The output of the parametric study was the pile deflection, the bending moment and the shaft friction. The study was divided into three main parts while each part contains several parameter combinations. The first part studied the effect of the single and double panel(s) on the single pile group that has different piles numbers and formations. The second and third parts studied the effect of multiple panels on connected pile groups and piled raft foundation, respectively. Generally, the studied parameters can be divided into three main groups. The first is related to the trench which includes the panel dimension, the number of panels and the slurry level inside the panel. The effect of slurry pressure reduction at some levels inside the trench was also studied. The second group concerned the soil type and ground water level. The third group is related to the deep foundation which includes pile characteristics, location, and formation within the group. The results from the parametric study showed that the pile behavior was greatly affected by panel length, groundwater level, slurry level inside the trench and steadiness of the slurry pressure. The piles were also affected by the different stages of construction related to the pile location from the constructed panel. The piles within the group act together so they behave different from each other according to their position. The effect of the pile on the trench stability is presented through a simple analytical approach which is based on the wedge analysis. The analytical approach provided equations that calculate the factor of safety in two and three dimensions. The pile location was governing the equation that calculate the factor of safety because the pile could be fully inside the failure wedge or intersect with the failure surface. A comparative study was conducted to find out the effect of the different pile location and other parameters on the safety factor. Generally, this comparative study showed that the pile located within the failure wedge reduces the factor of safety, while the pile that intersects the failure surface could increase it. The pile row near a trench that contains piles inside the failure wedge and others intersects the failure surface act together to balance the failure wedge. The factor of safety results of some cases from the analytical approach were also compared with those calculated from the numerical analysis. In general, the factor of safety from the numerical analysis was higher than that calculated from the proposed analytical approach. This research helped to understand the trenching effect on the ground surface and on the nearby piled foundations. It provided charts that could help to predict the soil deformation and earth pressure coefficient which could be used in the design. It showed through the parametric study the precautions that should be taken into consideration during trenching process near piled foundation. This research provided a design method for the slurry trench panel near piled foundation.

Neben dem Austausch über Messtechnische Erfassung und Überwachung, Analyse geokinematischer Prozesse, Modellierung von Lagerstätten und geostatistische Analyse und weiteren Themen stand zum Geokinematischen Tag 2017 vor allem das Helmert-Kolloquium anlässlich des 100. Todestages von Friedrich Robert Helmert im Mittelpunkt.

Die SME AG ist das erste Bergbauunternehmen, das seit Jahrzehnten ein neues Erzbergwerk erschließen und in Betrieb nehmen will. Traditionsreiche Bergbauunternehmen haben in der Vergangenheit neue Standorte, auf der Grundlage vorhandener Personalstrukturen, vorhandener Technik und Technologien, erschlossen. Im nachfolgenden Beitrag wird die strategische Herangehensweise der SME AG beschrieben, um zeitnah mit der Gewinnung in der Wolfram-Zinn-Lagerstätte zu beginnen.

The paper presents a method of calculating deformation coefficients for any point situated in the overlying rock mass or on the ground surface. This solution was based on the method presented by Sroka and Schober (1982, 1987), taking into account new theoretical achievements and the current results of in situ measurements.

Friedrich Robert Helmert wurde am 31. Juli 1843 in Freiberg/Sachsen geboren. Früh zeigte sich Helmerts Begabung mit Zahlen, Geometrie und Technik umzugehen. An der Königlichen Polytechnischen Schule, der Vorgängereinrichtung der heutigen Technischen Universität Dresden, entwickelte sich bei Helmert rasch eine Neigung zur Geodäsie, die von seinem Lehrer, Prof. Christian August Nagel (1821-1903), erkannt und gefördert wurde.

Die berühmte Helmertsche Definition der Geodäsie als „Wissenschaft von der Ausmessung und Abbildung der Erdoberfläche“ hat weite Verbreitung und Akzeptanz gefunden. Die Formulierung selbst ist allerdings wenig innovativ und verweist auf ältere Definitionen. Der von Helmert eingeleitete fundamentale Paradigmenwechsel in der Geodäsie findet nicht im ersten Satz, sondern in den folgenden Kapiteln der „Mathematischen und Physikalischen Theorieen der höheren Geodäsie“ statt. Indem Helmert sein Forschungsprogramm umsetzt, wesentliche Wissensbestände kanonisiert und das Königliche Geodätische Institut in Berlin bzw. Potsdam international und interdisziplinär profiliert, prägt er die moderne Geodäsie und ihre wissenschaftliche Gemeinschaft maßgeblich mit. Die wesentliche Beschränkung des Instituts auf den Bereich der Erdmessung ist auf die von Helmert mitgetragene Abgrenzung zur preußischen Landesaufnahme nach dem Tod Johann Jacob Baeyers zurückzuführen. Verstärkt durch das wissenschaftliche Profil Helmerts und seine beherrschende Stellung bis 1917 überträgt sich diese Verengung auf den Begriff „Geodäsie“. Für den beruflichen Erfolg der heute Studierenden sowie die Nachwuchsgewinnung, nicht nur für das Technische Referendariat, ist bedeutsam, dass die Geodäsie in ihrer ganzen Bandbreite und Bedeutung für Gesellschaft, Politik und Verwaltung wahrgenommen wird. Deshalb ist eine Definition der Geodäsie wünschenswert, die den spezifischen Gegenstandsbereich der Wissenschaft, ihre Methoden und ihre gesellschaftliche Funktion reflektiert.

The first conference on Real-Time Mining is bringing together individuals and companies working on EU-sponsored projects to exchange knowledge and rise synergies in resource extraction innovation. The topics include: • Resource Modelling and Value of Information; • Automated Material Characterization; • Positioning and Material Tracking; • Process Optimization; • Data Management. The conference has been initiated by the consortium of the EU H2020 funded project Real-Time Mining as a platform for inter-project communication and for communication with project stakeholders. It brings together several European research projects in the field of industry 4.0 applied to mineral resource extraction. These are the projects VAMOS, SOLSA and UNEXMIN.

The flow of information, and consequently the decision-making along the chain of mining from exploration to beneficiation, typically occurs in a discontinuous fashion over long timespans. In addition, due to the uncertain nature of the knowledge about deposits and the inherent spatial distribution of material characteristics, actual production performance often deviates from expectations. Reconciliation exercises to adjust mineral resource and reserve models and planning assumptions are performed with timely lags of weeks, months or even years.

Combined mineralogical and chemical analyses on drill cores are highly demanded by mining and metallurgical companies to speed up exploration, mining and define geometallurgical parameters for beneficiation. Furthermore, high quality coherent and complete drill cores are needed to obtain reliable analyses for more accurate geomodels, resource and reserve estimates. At present, analyses are done by exploiting only a single technique, such as hyperspectral imaging, XRF or LIBS. The coupling of different analytical instruments is still a technological challenge. The SOLSA project, sponsored by the EU-H2020 Raw Material program, targets to construct an expert system coupling sonic drilling with XRF, XRD, hyperspectral imaging and Raman spectroscopy. This paper will present the 4-years project in progress, a general, almost mid-term, state-of-the-art.

The 42-month ¡VAMOS! project (Viable Alternative Mine Operating System, Grant Agreement 642477, vamos-project.eu), co-funded by the European Commission’s Horizon2020 programme, will enable access to reserves of mineral deposits by developing an innovative, safe, clean, and low-visibility underwater inland mining technique. Through field-testing, ¡VAMOS! hopes to encourage investment in abandoned and prospective EU open-pit mines by providing a viable novel excavation process, ultimately aiming to reduce the EU’s reliance on imports of strategically important raw materials. The project will test the technological and economic viability of the underwater mining of inland mineral deposits which are currently economically, technologically, and environmentally unobtainable. If proven viable, ¡VAMOS! will enable access to deposits whose excavation has been historically limited by stripping ratio and hydrological and geotechnical considerations. Also, due to low noise and dust levels, and its road-transportable electric-powered system, ¡VAMOS! will be able to be applied safely in both urban-proximal and hard-to-access rural locations. ¡VAMOS! is defined by a remotely-operated underwater mining vehicle, adapted and improved from existing subsea mining technology. Operating in tandem with a remote-controlled sensory assistance-vehicle, the underwater miner will connect to a flexible riser through which mined material will be pumped from the mudline to a land-based dewatering pit via a floating mobile deployment-platform. On the deployment platform, a bypass system will be linked to production measuring equipment and a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy system, enabling throughput monitoring and real-time grade-control. Preparatory work has been carried out to assess the regulatory compliance of the project, its likely social and environmental impact, and the steps which need to be taken to reduce and quantify these during testing. Two community stakeholder workshops held in both England and Portugal have indicated that the public is receptive to the concept. Following an official project design-freeze in October 2016, construction and integration of all components will conclude in June 2017. This will be followed by field-testing at a flooded kaolin-granite quarry in Devon, England in October 2017, with further testing planned at a flooded iron mine in Vareš, Bosnia in June 2018.