A dissertation submitted to the Geophysics Department, School of Geosciences,
Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of
the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science. Johannesburg, February 2012 / Impala Platinum Mine (Impala), situated north of the town of Rustenburg in the
North West Province of South Africa, has experienced an increase in seismicity
from ~841 seismic events in the year 2005 to ~1588 seismic events in 2008. The
seismologists and rock engineers need to understand the underlying mechanisms
and driving forces responsible for seismicity to develop and design mining layouts
and support strategies to lessen the risks posed by rockburts. However, most
previous studies of seismicity conducted on Impala and other Bushveld Complex
mines in the Rustenburg area provided limited information regarding the source
parameters and mechanism due to insufficient data.
The study is designed to investigate the seismic hazard on Impala Platinum Mine
by means of two approaches: an investigation of seismic source parameters and
the mechanism of potentially damaging seismic events, and mapping of the
weathered layer of the near surface within the Impala mine lease area.
A number of detailed investigations of rockbursts were conducted whereby
damage was mapped and photographed. The investigations includes reviews of
the seismic history, short-, medium- and long-term seismic hazard assessment
methods, and an analysis of the source parameters of the seismic event and
associated ground motions. The study has revealed that most of the seismic events
occur close to the reef plane, and are the result of the failure of a volume of rock
that includes the pillar and the host rock that forms the foundation of the pillar.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/12490 |
| Date | 05 March 2013 |
| Creators | Ledwaba, Lesiba Shalkie |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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