Stefano Utili

Affiliation

OptimalSlope Ltd; Newcastle University

Biography

Stefano Utili is Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Newcastle University (Newcastle, upon Tyne, UK): https://www.ncl.ac.uk/engineering/staff/profile/stefanoutili.html and founder of OptimalSlope: http://optimalslope.com OptimalSlope provides a proprietary software for the determination of optimal profiles for mine pitwalls. The software finds the best slope shape, maximising the Overall Slope Angle for the assigned stratigraphy and rock mass properties. The optimal profiles are always steeper than their planar counterparts (i.e. the planar profile exhibiting the same FoS) of up to 4 degrees depending on rock type and severity of local constraints. The adoption of optimal profiles leads to increases of net present value of tens of USD millions, with increases u to 50%, and significant reductions of carbon footprint and energy consumption due to reduction of waste rock volume of up to 15%. Prof. Utili is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineering.