Intensive development of large-scale deposits in high-stressed rock masses results in sharp activation of mining-induced processes in the earth depths and the surface thus initiates increasing of seismic activity in the mining area and hazard of rockbursts and mining-induced earthquakes. As reliable spatial-temporal prediction of dynamic events in the mines is problematic in the current state of methodology and geomechanical experiment technique, therefore, it is required to assess risks of these events which scale determines corresponding preventive measures.
One of the main deep open pit mining problems is the wall stability for a long time. It is obvious that the basic area of stress concentration in deep pits is the lower edges of pit walls. We have been studying the possibility of reducing stress concentrations like these by means of the alteration of the open pit bottom part configuration. To do this, there was considered the shape with a smooth passage from walls to the bottom of the pit (by widening the berms in the lower part) instead of trapezoid shape. Calculations were carried out for deep open pits with a flat and rounded bottom across and along the strike of the ore body.
Subsoil is not just a source of mineral resources; it also serves as a burial site of industrial and domestic wastes, a storage place for oil and gas, and an environment for constructing underground facilities and creating preservations and nature sanctuaries. Subsoil area development is intensified and diversified with each passing year, exerting great influence on ecological systems and all their components. Special attention should be paid to terrain as upper facet of lithosphere, submitted to maximal impact of anthropogenic processes. Activation and emergence of natural and anthropogenic processes causes changes manifested in various combinations of negative events. Most important events include deformations of rock mass and land surface: exhaustion and pollution of ground and surface water, waterflooding and swamping of tapped sites, soil dehydration and salinization, air pollution, land site withdrawal from commercial circulation etc.
