Dr Alison McQuillan

Director, Rocscience Australia

Keynote presentation

Does a FOS of 1.2 mean your slope will be stable?

Typical design acceptance criteria for open pit slopes is a minimum FOS of 1.2. Often we will design a slope to have a FOS greater than 1.2 but slope failure still occurs. This presentation will discuss why such events occur and what steps we as geotechnical engineers can take to have a better understanding of the likelihood and risk of slope failure. It will also introduce concepts for audience consideration on communicating stability analysis results to increase stakeholders’ understanding of design reliability.

Biography

Alison currently holds the position of Director, Rocscience Australia overseeing operations in Australia and New Zealand. She obtained her PhD at UNSW and is a Chartered Professional (in Geotech) and RPEQ. Her area of expertise is rock mechanics and open pit slope stability, previously working in both ops and corporate roles for Anglo American and Rio Tinto as well as providing specialists consulting services for copper, gold, iron ore, coal and diamond operations in Australia, PNG, SE Asia and Africa.