The impact of a salt deposit’s origin on its exploitation: three case-studies from underground mining operations

Jonathan D. Aubertin, Stefan Hoentzsch, Mark S. Diederichs, D. Jean Hutchinson

In the proceedings of: GeoSt. John's 2019: 72nd Canadian Geotechnical Conference

Session: Rock Mechanics

ABSTRACT: Halite, commonly referred to as Rock Salt, presents remarkable and often unique mechanical behavior. Rock salt exhibits pronounced time dependent deformation under deviatoric stresses, denoted as creep. Rock salt also requires unconventional blasting methods due to its low blast wave impedance and very weak tensile strength. The mechanical behavior of salt deposits is largely influenced by the geological and geotechnical characteristics, and amount of impurities, which are all mainly governed by the origin of the deposit. This article presents a comparative summary of the main features of three salt deposits of very different origins, which are being mined for rock salt. The three deposits presented are: (i) the complex, fault-bounded Pugwash diapir located in the Carboniferous Maritimes Basin in Nova Scotia, (ii) the Ojibway tabular deposit located in the transition of the Silurian Michigan and Appalachian Basin in Ontario, and (iii) the Weeks Island salt dome located in the Jurassic Gulf Coast Basin in Southern Louisiana.

RÉSUMÉ: Le minéral halite, qui forme la roche appelée sel gemme, présente un comportement geomécanique unique. Le sel gemme, de par sa configuration crystalline, présente une tendance à déformer dans le temps sous une contrainte différentielle constante, communément appeler fluage. Le sel présent aussi des tendances bien particulières concernant le sautage avec explosifs. Le sel, étant charactérisé par une faible résistance en tension et compression, et une faible impédance n conséquence. Le comportement du sel gemme est grandement affect par les origines et la composition minéralogique du gisement. Le présent article porte sur une étude de cas comparative de trois différents sites miniers exploitant le sel gemme. Les gisements considérés sont (i) le diapir de Pugwash situés près du basin de carbonifèeres des maritimes en Nouvelle- silurien du Michigan, et (iii) le dome de sel de Weeks Island situé dans le bassin jurassique prèes du golfe du Mexique en Louisianne (É. U.).

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Cite this article:
Jonathan D. Aubertin; Stefan Hoentzsch; Mark S. Diederichs; D. Jean Hutchinson (2019) The impact of a salt deposit’s origin on its exploitation: three case-studies from underground mining operations in GEO2019. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{Geo2019Paper166,author = Jonathan D. Aubertin; Stefan Hoentzsch; Mark S. Diederichs; D. Jean Hutchinson,title = The impact of a salt deposit’s origin on its exploitation: three case-studies from underground mining operations,year = 2019}