Geotechnical Engineering for Mine Waste Storage Facilities






Geotechnical Engineering for

Mine Waste Storage Facilities

Geoffrey Blight

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa



Acknowledgements

I was first introduced to the fascinating subject of geotechnical engineering by Jere

Jennings when I was a final year student at the University of the Witwatersrand in

1955. As mining was, and continues to be a major industry involving geotechnical

engineering in South Africa, many of Jere’s teaching examples involved the geotechnics

of mine waste, a subject that has enthralled me ever since. Jere also introduced me to

the subject of unsaturated soil mechanics, which, living in the water-deficient climate

of South Africa, was almost inevitable and very necessary. When, a few years later,

I studied at the Imperial College in London, my PhD supervisor was Alan Bishop,

another of the pioneers in the fields of mine waste and unsaturated soils. It was these

two engineers whose contributions to my career I now remember with gratitude.

I have also been assisted over the past fifty or so years by a number of fellow

geotechnical engineers, many of whom started out as my students and became friends

and professional colleagues and with whom I am grateful to have been associated. In

particular, I acknowledge the friendship and assistance of Oskar Steffen, Eric Hall,

John Nelson, Dick Dison, Neville Graham, Ken Lyell, Brian Wrench, Mike Smith,

Derek Avalle, Dave Bentel, Gordon McPhail, Jeremy Boswell, Rod Ball, Andy Fourie,

Sam Spearing, Adriaan Meintjies, Jenny Blight and Krassimir Roussev, all of whom

have contributed directly or indirectly to this book.


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