New Afton Mine, Kamloops, British Columbia

In 2017, DA Smith^* conducted 12 CSIRO digital HI Cell in situ 3D stress measurements at New Gold Inc.’s New Afton underground gold mine located near Kamloops, British Columbia. Measurements were taken in four sub-horizontal holes drilled from various development entries located outside the influence of the mine’s primary block cave. Young’s moduli of the cores were measured on site using a portable biaxial pressure chamber. Measurements ranged in downhole depth from 25 to 78 feet, in all cases beyond any significant stress perturbation induced by the entry. The global pre-mining stress state was interpreted from the stress measurements utilizing pole plots of the measured stress tensors.

^{* Formerly as Agapito Associates, Inc.}