USE OF MINING AND SEISMOLOGICAL PARAMETERS AS PREMONITORS OF ROCKBURSTS

Comprising one of the deepest mines in the world, the gold mining regi on of the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in southern India is known to be con fronted with the acute problem of rockbursts that pose a hazard to wor kmen and cause disruptions in the production schedule. In combination with mining parameters, seismological data of these rockbursts events systematically monitored over the years using a regional seismic netwo rk have been employed to examine and model premonitory characteristics of the events. Linear empirical relations are established relying on correlations seen between the seismic energy released due to a rockbur st, total tonnage of ore mined out and total number of rockbursts, as well as seismic events in some shallow and deep workings currently act ive at KGF. The deterministic model, although not free from certain li mitations at present, has been applied to predict rockburst activity w ith some success. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.