1. Assistant Professor, Institute of Mining Engineering, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada (corresponding author).
2. Professor, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser Univ., Burnaby, BC, Canada.
3. Professor, Geological Engineering, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
4. Senior Geotech Engineer, Kazakhmys Group, Technical Dept., Samal 2, Microdistrict 69A, Almaty 050059, Kazakhstan.