Mass Movement in the Waste Dump of High-Altitude Kumtor Goldmine (Kyrgyzstan)

Abstract

The movement of waste rocks dumps together with ice, stored on the glaciers of the high-altitude Kumtor gold mine is reviewed in this paper. This mining site is located in the central part of the Tien Shan (Kyrgyzstan). There are no other cases around the world, when the waste rocks and removed ice were stored on the active mountain glaciers. The landslide has formed in the area of dumps, stored on the Davydov glacier, and the displacement velocity has dramatically increased in spring 2013. Due to the accelerated movement of rock-ice mass, a number of Kumtor mine infrastructural units was destroyed with economic losses of about USD 100 million. This article presents the results of monitoring of the landslide displacements and provides analysis of the causes for its acceleration. The potential environmental impact of further development of the gravitational mass movement and impact on the Kumtor gold mine facilities were assessed.