Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 2021, 9, 121-131 https://www.scirp.org/journal/gep ISSN Online: 2327-4344 ISSN Print: 2327-4336 DOI: 10.4236/gep.2021.91010 Jan. 29, 2021 121 Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection Effects of Sublevel Open Stope Underground Mining on Surface and Open Pit Slopes Tumelo K. M. Dintwe 1* , Takashi Sasaoka 1 , Hideki Shimada 1 , Akihiro Hamanaka 1 , Dyson Moses 1 , Sifei Liu 2 , Fanfei Meng 1 1 Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan 2 China University of Science and Technology, Xuzhou, China Abstract Underground mining is an economically viable option for exploiting ore re- serves deemed uneconomic after open pit mining. However, underground development can have adverse effects on the above existing open pit slope walls. As a goal of this paper, identification and assessment of potential slope instabilities prior to underground development is crucial for safe and sus- tainable mining. Towards goal achieving, this paper gives a comprehensive parametric study to investigate the influence of sublevel open stope (SLOS) underground mining on the surface and open pit slope walls. By means of numerical simulation, the SLOS design is tried against the existing open pit followed by adjustments of important slope parameters which are overall slope height (OSH) and overall slope angle (OSA). We found that under- ground mining may induce slope failure, particularly on the hangingwall side of the pit. Subsidence is prominent on the hanging wall and the surface, whe- reas, the uplift dominates the footwall and pit bottom. Pit wall closure is ob- served during underground mining. Although the assigned dimensions in the parametric study show a negligible effect of OSH and OSA, the high OSH ex- perience low subsidence in comparison with low OSH. Overall, the results demonstrate that the slope walls on the hanging wall side are mostly affected by the underground mining and high-stress concentration prevails near slope toes and pit bottom. Additionally, slope deformation decrease from pit bot- tom towards the slope crest and surface. The results of this study add know- ledge to open pit and underground mining interaction. Keywords Open Pit-Underground Interaction, Slope Stability, Underground Mining, Subsidence How to cite this paper: Dintwe, T. K. M., Sasaoka, T., Shimada, H., Hamanaka, A., Moses, D., Liu, S. F., & Meng, F. F. (2021). Effects of Sublevel Open Stope Under- ground Mining on Surface and Open Pit Slopes. Journal of Geoscience and Envi- ronment Protection, 9, 121-131. https://doi.org/10.4236/gep.2021.91010 Received: December 28, 2020 Accepted: January 26, 2021 Published: January 29, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access