3 December 2019
Planet Labs images of the huge new landslide at Kumtor Mine in Kyrgyzstan
Posted by Dave Petley
Planet Labs images of the huge new landslide at Kumtor Mine in Kyrgyzstan
On 1 December 2019 a very large mining-related landslide occurred in a waste pile at the Kumtor Mine in Kyrgyzstan. Concerns have been raised previously about the large landslides occurring at this site, and indeed I wrote a blog post in September about these risks.
The new landslide at Kumtor occurred at 5:43 am on 1 December. Sadly, two workers appear to have been killed, although search parties have yet to find them. Early reports suggest that the landslide was about 12 million cubic metres, although this remains uncertain.
Planet Labs have captured high quality before and after images of the site, which is located at 41.90, 78.18. This is the site on 29 November, prior to the failure:-
Planet Labs image of the site of the Kumtor mine landslide of 1 December 2019. Planet Labs PlanetScope image, collected 29 November 2019. Copyright Planet Labs, used with permission.
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The aftermath of the landslide is captured on an image from 1 December 2019, just a few hours after the failure:-
Planet Labs image of the aftermath of the Kumtor mine landslide of 1 December 2019. Planet Labs PlanetScope image, collected 1 December 2019. Copyright Planet Labs, used with permission.
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The images show that the landslide was very large – the length appears to be about 2 km and the width is about 500 m, possibly more in the lower parts. The failure appears to have started in recently tipped materials close to the bottom of the images. The 29 November 2019 satellite image shows vehicles in this area. The rear scarp of the landslide is in partial shadow, but can be seen in the image of 1 December.
A hint of what might have happened at Kumtor Mine is shown in this sequence of Planet Labs images from the last few weeks, taken on 8, 20 and 29 November 2019:-
A sequence of Planet Labs images of the upper parts of the Kumtor mine landslide of 1 December 2019, prior to failure. Collection dates as per image. Planet Labs PlanetScope images, collected November 2019. Copyright Planet Labs, used with permission.
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The images appear to show a new area of active tipping in early November, which expanded rapidly through the month. The image of 29 November appears to show the development of a large failure in the area that developed into the full landslide ultimately. The debris appears to be loading the next bench down.
It is not possible to say whether this is the start of the events that ended so tragically on 1 December, but I strongly suspect that this is the case. If so, I wonder if this was detected at the time, and how the risk was being managed?
Reference
Planet Team (2019). Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA. https://www.planet.com/
Dave Petley is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. His blog provides commentary and analysis of landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.
Dear Dave,
unfortunately, two people remained under this technogenic landslide.
If we consider that now the air temperature at Kumtor is below 20 degrees Celsius and the volume of the collapsed dump exceeds 10-12 million cubic meters,
I assume that they are no longer alive ….
In 2002, during the collapse of the side of the Central Quarry in this mine with a volume of over 2 million cubic meters, one person was killed, whose body was found only a year later. I enclose some photos …
Dear colleagues,
unfortunately, two people remained under this technogenic landslide. If we consider that now the air temperature at Kumtor is below 20 degrees Celsius and the volume of the collapsed dump exceeds 10 million cubic meters, I assume that they are no longer alive ….
In 2002, during the collapse of the side of the Central Quarry in this mine with a volume of over 2 million cubic meters, one person was killed, whose body was found only a year later.
I enclose some photos on 2 December 2019…and photo Waste Dump in Lysyi Glacer valley on 3 August 2014
Historically, the very first dumps No. 3.4 began to form in September 1996 in the valley of the Lysy glacier, on its western side. Dumping of dumps was first carried out on an inclined base slope, and then on the glacier itself. The stability of the dump on the steep slope of the valley of the Lysy glacier, which formed “from top to bottom”, caused great doubts from the very beginning. It is clear that in such a situation, sooner or later, the dump should have crawled, which happened on December 1, 2019.
The problem of the stability of dumps is that almost all of the surrounding slopes, on which heavy dumps were dumped and are still being made, are composed of ice-rich permafrost, which thaw during the formation of dumps and due to climate warming. Obviously, such permafrost conditions do not provide a solid foundation for dumps on slopes. As a result, as Kumtor’s negative experience shows, not one of the dumps in this mine was stable and all dumps sooner or later shifted down the slopes to the very bottom of the valleys. Prior to this, in April 2013, a grand landslide occurred in the valley of the Davydov glacier, the damage from which exceeded $ 100 million.