Estimation of toe berm requirements for slope stability in heap leach facility design

Slope stability analysis methods are often incorporated into the design process for assessing the anticipated performance of a heap leach facility. With the use of geomembrane liner systems, the most critical slide surface is typically found to correspond to a wedge-shaped block surface. Frequently the stability of a heap leach facility is found to be less than desirable, and it is necessary to incorporate a buttress at the base of the facility to increase the overall stability of the slope. Optimizing the buttress geometry for these applications can often be a tedious and time-consuming task. An approximate closed-form solution is presented which allows for the estimation of the required toe berm to achieve the desired factor of safety against sliding.