Abstract
In engineering projects related to rock mechanics such as open pit mines, evaluating and ensuring the stability of mine walls is a crucial aspect of these structures. Understanding the types of failures that may occur is a key focus during the study phase of open pit mines. The occurrence of failure phenomena in both natural and artificial rock slopes, like those found in open-pit mines and road trenches, poses significant challenges for such projects. The Chadormalu mine is known as one of the largest open-pit iron mines in Iran, with part of the mine's pit affected by fractures. In this study, field studies were conducted on the fracture systems of mine walls and spatial assessment for their location in three blocks, B-2, B-12 and B-15, for conducting kinematic analyses using RockPack III program and for empirical methods, Slope Mass Rating (SMR) method has been utilized. A case study of the Chadormalu iron ore mine, where the west wall ruptures have been analyzed using kinematic and empirical methods, reveals that the presence of various fault surfaces and fractures in the rock mass can lead to different types of failures such as planar, wedging, and toppling failures in the mine wall. The results obtained from this analysis, utilizing both kinematic and empirical methods, demonstrate a strong correlation between the data obtained from these two approaches.