Effect of fly ash on geotechnical properties and stability of coal mine overburden dump: an overview

Abstract

The management of overburden (OB) materials needs proper attention to safe mining operations. Several mine OB dump failures have been occurred due to inappropriate geotechnical and geometrical parameters. Increasing consumption of coal in thermal power plant also generates huge amount of ash which adversely affect the environment and its utilization is a great challenge. The present paper reviews the effect of fly ash on the different geotechnical properties and stability of coal mine OB dump material to explore a safe and effective utilization of fly ash. It was found that up to 30% fly ash can potentially modify the compaction characteristics, California bearing ratio value, unconfined compressive strength, and shear strength parameters of OB dump material. Based on the review, it may be suggested that fly ash-OB mix can be effectively utilized in the mine OB dump and for the mine haul road construction thus, provides an alternative mode of fly ash utilization in huge quantity.