Geotechnical stability in mining refers to the capacity of natural or engineered earth structures — including pit walls, underground excavations, waste dumps, tailings storage facilities, and road embankments — to resist failure, collapse, or unacceptable deformation under the physical, gravitational, hydrological, and dynamic loads to which they are subjected throughout the mining life cycle. In bauxite, gold, iron ore, and diamond mining, maintaining geotechnical stability is a primary engineering and safety obligation, as instability events can result in catastrophic loss of life, environmental damage, production disruption, and reputational harm. Geotechnical stability is expressed quantitatively through the factor of safety (FoS), which represents the ratio of available resisting forces to driving forces acting on a potential failure surface; FoS values greater than 1.0 indicate stability, while values approaching or below 1.0 indicate imminent or active failure. The required minimum factor of safety varies by structure type, consequence of failure, and regulatory jurisdiction, typically ranging from 1.2 for temporary structures to 1.5 or higher for permanent facilities such as tailings dams. In open pit mining, geotechnical stability is influenced by rock mass quality, structural geology, groundwater pore pressures, blast vibration, and seismic loading. Underground geotechnical stability concerns include stope crown and sidewall collapses, pillar crushing, fault slip, and rockbursts. The catastrophic failure of tailings dams at Mariana (2015) and Brumadinho (2019) in Brazil underscored the consequences of inadequate geotechnical stability management and has driven sweeping reforms in dam safety standards globally.
