The Large Open Pit (LOP) Project is an industry-sponsored international research and technology transfer initiative that commenced in April 2005 to address the industry-wide need for improved knowledge of rock slope failure in open-pit mines. Originally planned as a four-year project, it was extended until June 2014, supported by twelve international large open-pit mining companies under the management of Dr John Read of CSIRO. The project entered its second phase (LOP II) in 2016, followed by Phase III (LOP III) in 2020, and is now in its current Phase IV (LOP IV 2024-2028). Since 2016, each phase has been supported by over eight international mining companies and managed by Professor David Williams and Dr Mehdi Serati at The University of Queensland, Australia.
Since its inception in 2005, the LOP Project has been sponsored by a diverse consortium comprising many of the world’s largest multinational mining companies, joint venture partners, and individual mines. These include Anglo American plc, AngloGold Ashanti Limited, Barrick Gold Corporation, BHP Chile, BHP Billiton Innovation Pty Limited, Corporación Nacional de Cobre del Chile (Codelco), Compañía Minera Doña Inés de Collahuasi SCM, De Beers Group Services (Pty), Debswana Diamond Company, Newcrest Mining Limited, Newmont Australia Limited, Ok Tedi Mining Limited, Technological Resources Pty Ltd (Rio Tinto Group), Teck Resources Limited, Vale, and Xstrata Copper Queensland. The direction of the LOP Project has been guided by the geotechnical community through sponsor representation from these organizations.
For more on the history of LOP, see here.
Our vision
- to advance the state‐of‐the‐art in surface mine geotechnical design and operation through targeted research. The research is intended to be practical and pragmatic with a short‐to‐mid‐term delivery of advances to the industry of 3‐10 years; and
- to continue the LOP tradition of peer knowledge exchange through close interaction between sponsor representatives and through site visits to operating mines as well as service provider and supplier centres. This information exchange has demonstrated itself to be an invaluable result of the original LOP project.
LOP Mandates
Among the initiatives mandated by the LOP sponsors are:
- The development of reference books related to the design and stability of large slopes in open-pit mines. This has resulted in the publication of the following guidelines so far.
- Open Pit Slope Design (Read and Stacey 2009),
- Evaluating Water in Pit Slope Stability (Beale and Read 2013),
- Mine Waste Dump and Stockpile Design (Hawley and Cunning 2017),
- Open Pit Slope Design in Weak Rocks (Martin and Stacey 2017),
- Slope Performance Monitoring (Sharon and Eberhardt 2020), and
- Open Pit and Waste Dump Closure (Graaf, Beale, and Carter 2025)
See here for more details on published and soon-to-be-released LOP Guidelines.
- Supporting research proposals that address key challenges in slope design. Direction for the proposals is provided by the geotechnical fraternity through LOP sponsor representatives. The goal is to unite industry and academic practitioners in advancing technological innovations, including but not limited to:
- innovative mining,
- developing and implementing instrumentation, monitoring, and remote sensing for open pits and waste facilities,
- data management and visualization techniques, and
- reducing open pit and waste rock storage facility failures using advanced data science techniques.
See here for a list of funded projects by LOP over the years. Some of the projects have been approved to have their final reports made available to the public through the LOP website.
- Supporting training, promoting education, and fostering diversity within the mining geotechnical community while encouraging the next generation to pursue careers in the field. This initiative has facilitated the development of several university courses worldwide in slope design engineering (with complimentary seats for LOP representatives), several webinar series accessible through the LOP Education Centre via the LOP public website, and invited lectures by leading experts in slope design.
Follow here for LOP Education Centre.