Overburden dumping is a major operation in surface coal mining and results in the formation of large waste dumps that can reach heights of several hundred meters. Instability of these dumps can cause slope failures, equipment damage, and serious accidents. This study evaluates the stability of overburden dump slopes using both conventional geotechnical methods and probabilistic analysis. The research examines the influence of material strength parameters, moisture conditions, and dump geometry on slope stability. A probabilistic approach is used to account for uncertainty in geotechnical properties. The results show that variability in cohesion, internal friction angle, and water content significantly affects the factor of safety. The study demonstrates that probabilistic modelling provides a more reliable assessment of dump stability compared with deterministic methods and can help prevent accidents in large opencast mines.
Sumeet Kishore (2025) studied this question.