La Loma, April 13, 2022
As part of the technology transfer agreement with Fundacion Universitaria del Area Andina, Valledupar campus, a group of geologists and engineers at Drummond Ltd. provided online training on “Low wall slope stability” to upper-level students in the geological engineering and mining engineering programs.
The purpose of the training was to teach, from experience, the right way to do geotechnical stability studies to prevent landslides, based on the company’s best practices for mining.
Three special cases with low wall stabilization were discussed with the 140 participants, which included students, teachers, administrative personnel, and people from outside the sector. The first case used a sequence of soft clay stratification maps to look at the sector of the El Descanso Norte mine, where stability was improved by designing support structures. The second case was at the El Corozo mine, where the seam’s slope required creating terraces, and the third case was at the La Loma mine, where there are plastic clays under the Borrego seam.
“This process to explore changes in technology provided by Drummond to the University has been of great benefit for the students and even to us as professors, because it’s a vision that is different from what we have in the academic world. This way, students can appreciate the real problems and how they are resolved in real life, in practice,” commented Diana Guirales, geological engineer and professor at Fundacion Universitaria del Area Andina.
The training had an intensity of eight hours a day on April 7 and 8, using a digital platform, inspiring college students to continuously develop new processes and procedures that are applicable to the mining industry.
“All types of landslides and rock falls must be prevented that could put the lives of employees at risk. And on the geotechnical side, we have to be careful in preventing any situation that could pose a risk to workers during the mining operation.”
Drummond Ltd. thus acknowledges once again education’s importance and power to transform, for which reason it continues to strengthen its Comprehensive Development pillar targeting the Sustainable Development of Quality Education.
