BHP Billiton is the owner of the mine and manages the open pit copper mine in the Atacama desert, in the north of Chile. It is currently the highest-producing copper mine in the world.
Aim of monitoring:
The main aim of the monitoring system is to prevent the seepage of liquid acid through the dam (sulfuric and H+ ions that have been formed can leak into the ground). Roctest installed several km of distributed temperature sensing cable to measure the temperature over a long distance while detecting abnormal infiltrations. Piezometers were also used to measure pore water pressure in the soil.
INSTALLATION PERIOD | TYPE OF SENSORS | NUMBER OF SENSORS |
2011 | DiTeSt / DiTemp , FISO | 64 |