Ground movement rarely announces itself. It can develop slowly over time, through gradual deformation, creep, or subtle stress redistribution, or it can occur with sudden violence and rapid failure, such as a rockburst. In many cases, the earth may weaken quietly and begin to fail long before any visible signs appear. By the time traditional point-based sensors detect that something is wrong, the damage may already be occurring beneath the surface.

Mining sites,  tailings storage facilities (TSFs), or critical infrastructure, are high-risk environments. So, even a small delay in getting the appropriate information can lead to major issues. For this reason, proper monitoring is recommended. With the right tools in place, engineers can spot small changes in the ground early and take action before things get worse.

But you can trust Sintela in this. We always make the entire process smarter nad reliable. Our Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing (DFOS) solutions turn regular fiber cables into a continuous, real-time monitoring system. Instead of checking just a few fixed points, DFOS keeps an eye on the entire area along the cable.

This gives operators a clear, full picture of what's happening underground, helping them catch early signs of movement and respond with confidence.

The Problem with Conventional Monitoring 

Conventional geotechnical monitoring works best when the likely failure zone is known with reasonable precision. But in mining environments, ground behaviour is rarely predictable. Rock mass deformation can initiate outside assumed hazard zones, a slope may begin to fail just meters from the nearest instrument, or a fracture may form between discrete monitoring points, leaving critical early-stage ground instability undetected. Early indications of a seismic hazard or Rockburst are often not captured by a geophone array system.  

Beyond limited spatial coverage, traditional geotechnical instruments have several operational challenges: 

• High installation and maintenance costs. It is especially when you try to monitor large mine slopes, extensive underground excavations, or broad volumes of rock mass 
• Low frequency or delayed data. This limits situational awareness and makes real-time, proactive decision-making challenging
• You may get incorrect or inconsistent alerts, which reduces operator confidence in the system 
• Complex power, communication, and hardware requirements, particularly in remote, high-risk, or constantly evolving mine environments 

These limitations make it difficult for you to detect risks such as slow slope movement, tailings dam instability, underground seismic activity, ground sinking, and shifting stress in the rock. And by the time they are finally identified, the situation may already be serious.

For this reason, the mining sector is accelerating its adoption of advanced geotechnical monitoring technologies, solutions capable of delivering continuous, reliable, minewide coverage without the blind spots inherent to traditional point-based systems. 

How Sintela's ONYX™ Technology Transforms Geotechnical Monitoring 

Sintela's ONYX™ platform is built on Quantitative Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), a next-generation approach that captures the full richness of acoustic energy travelling through a fiber optic cable, including amplitude, frequency, and phase. This level of detail enables precise characterization of ground behaviour across large mining operations, tailings storage facilities, and other geotechnical environments. 

Sintela's custom-designed monitoring solutions based on our ONYX™ deliver quantitative, high-fidelity insights that give operators a far deeper understanding of ground behaviour. With ONYX™, you can determine: 

• What is happening across a large monitoring volume, with continuous, realtime visibility rather than isolated measurement points
• How small or subtle the anomaly or deformation is, detected at picostrain and microstrain resolution
• Exactly where the event is occurring, thanks to precise location accuracy  

This level of spatial and temporal resolution is essential for early detection of slope movement, tailings dam settlement or internal erosion, underground convergence, and other geotechnical risks. 

Turning Fiber Cable into a Continuous Sensor 

One of the key advantages of Sintela's technology is the ability to use standard, lowcost telecommunications fiber as a continuous sensing element. This unlocks widearea, highresolution monitoring with minimal disruption and no need for complex instrumentation grids. 

The fiber can be installed in: 

• Deep or exploration boreholes
• Underground drifts and tunnels
• Tailings dam embankments 
• Highwalls and waste dumps
• Remote or hard-to-access areas 

With a single ONYX™ unit capable of monitoring up to 200 km of fiber, depending on cable type, operators gain minewide coverage with a consistently low noise floor across the entire sensing distance. This makes DFOS an ideal complement, or replacement, for traditional geotechnical instrumentation in mining and tailings applications. 

Key DFOS Applications for Mining & Tailings Geotechnical Monitoring 

Talking about mining, real-time awareness of the ground conditions and Rock Mass Response cannot be overlooked, as it is essential for safe and efficient operations. Though traditional geotechnical instruments, like extensometers, piezometers, inclinometers, and geophones, give valuable point-based data, they leave critical gaps between sensors.

This is where Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing (DFOS) fills these blind spots by delivering continuous, high-resolution monitoring along the entire length of the fiber. This further helps operators to detect subtle changes long before a single instrument triggers an alert. 

Let's take a look at few key mining and tailings applications where DFOS, powered by Sintela's ONYX™ platform, delivers transformational value:

1. Block Cave & Caving Monitoring 

Block caving operations generate continuous rock mass deformation, fracturing, and seismic activity as the cave propagates. DFOS provides a unique ability to determine yielded, seismogenic and elastic zones in real time across large volumes of rock—something conventional geotechnical instruments such as cave trackers and microseismic arrays cannot fully capture on their own. 

• Detects early stage cave front movement, crown pillar degradation, and cave propagation signals 
• Identifies fracturing, shear activation, and rock mass yielding at picostrain resolution 
• Provides continuous data where microseismic networks have sparse sensor coverage 
• Enables operators to monitor drawpoint conditions, convergence, and cave performance from surface to depth 
• Supports integration with traditional microseismic systems for a fuller picture of cave mechanics 
• Integrates with established caving instrumentation (e.g., cave flow tracking systems, smart marker arrays, underground convergence measurements) to deliver a fuller picture of cave mechanics and risk. 

Ideal for: block caving, sublevel caving (SLC), panel caving, and any operation involving progressive cave development and highstress rock mass deformation. 

2. Microseismic and Seismic Event Monitoring

DFOS enables highly sensitive detection of microseismic activity, seismic hazard, rock fracturing, and stress redistribution across both underground and surface mining operations. It then:

• Captures signals equivalent to what geophones monitor, but only across continuous kilometres and not discrete points
• Can identify rockburst precursors, seismic hazard and optimized blast monitoring before they happen
• Makes existing microseismic networks better by filling gaps between sparse sensor locations 

Ideal for: Underground mines, block caving operations, high-stress zones, seismic hazard management, blast monitoring.

3. Slope Stability Monitoring

Sometimes, extensometers or prism-based systems may fail to provide early detection of slope creep, shear zone activation, highwall deformation, and failure precursors. This is when DFOS helps. 

• Continuous strain and vibration monitoring across long slope faces 
• Identifies slow-moving deformational trends and sudden failure signatures 
• Complements or replaces traditional survey-based monitoring and inclinometers 

Ideal for: Open-pit mines, waste dumps, stockpiles, highwalls. 

4. Tailings Dam Subsurface Imaging & Integrity Monitoring 

Tailings storage facilities (TSFs) require constant vigilance. DFOS helps monitor internal dam behavior and detect internal erosion, and changes invisible to surface-only systems. 

• Detects seepage pathways, piping, internal erosion, settlement, and liquefaction precursors 
• Fiber can be installed in embankments, toe drains, decant structures, and perimeter pipelines 
• Provides continuous realtime data compared to periodic readings from piezometers and settlement cells 

Ideal for: upstream, downstream, and centerline tailings dams; new and legacy TSFs. 

 5. Underground Deformation & Convergence Monitoring

ONYX™ identifies changes along drifts, declines, and ore passes, where traditional extensometers are difficult to install or maintain. 

• Tracks tunnel convergence, support loading, and ground relaxation 
• Detects failures forming between monitoring points 
• Enables safer access and more informed ground support design 

Ideal for: Underground mining environments with variable stress regimes. 

6. Subsidence & Ground Movement Detection 

DFOS allows operators to monitor broad ground movement patterns caused by extraction, dewatering, or natural geohazards. 

• Provides full-length subsidence monitoring vs. point-based settlement markers 
• Identifies gradual deformation and sudden collapse mechanisms 
• Supports risk mitigation for surface assets and nearby communities 

Ideal for: Longwall mining, room-and-pillar, open-pit expansions, and post-closure monitoring 

7. Pipeline, Conveyor, and Infrastructure Corridor Monitoring 

DFOS protects critical linear mining infrastructure by detecting third-party interference, leaks, vibration anomalies, or ground movement. 

• Monitors up to 200 km with ONYX™ peta EX 
• Detects strain on pipelines, conveyor alignment shifts, or embankment instabilities 
• Complements SCADA and conventional sensors with continuous ground truth 

Ideal for: Tailings pipelines, water supply lines, fuel lines, overland conveyors, haul roads. 

Why ONYX™ Stands Out in Mining Geotechnical Monitoring

ONYX™ delivers the wide area coverage, high resolution detection, and real-time insight needed for modern geotechnical risk management in mining, something traditional instrumentation networks cannot achieve alone. Whether for seismicity, slope stability, tailings integrity, or underground deformation, DFOS provides a level of visibility that enables operators to act early and confidently. 

 Explore the ONYX™ Product Range 

ONYX™ nano 

ONYX™ nano is a compact, power-efficient, and cost-effective sensing system designed specifically for flexible deployment in mining and tailings environments. It supports up to 20 km of sensing fiber and is extremely easy to deploy in both surface and underground settings.
Its small footprint, low power consumption, and rugged design make it especially well-suited for: 

• Tailings dam monitoring 
• Underground convergence and seismic event detection 
• Localized slope stability monitoring 
• Remote or resource-limited projects 

Because of its versatility and affordability, ONYX™ nano is suitable for the majority of mining geotechnical monitoring applications, providing high-value insights without the complexity of traditional instrumentation networks 

ONYX™ peta

ONYX™ peta is Sintela's high-performance sensing system designed for large infrastructure monitoring. It works with standard telecommunications fiber and provides highly sensitive detection over long distances of up to 135 kms. This makes it ideal for identifying early signs of ground movement, slope instability, and other geotechnical risks before they become serious problems. 

ONYX™ peta EX 

ONYX™ peta EX is built for monitoring very long infrastructure corridors. It can collect data over fiber cables ranging from about 75 to 200 kilometers. This makes it especially useful for large assets such as pipelines, mining areas, and remote transport routes where continuous monitoring is needed across vast distances. 

Why Sintela Is Trusted for Critical Mining & Tailings Monitoring 

Reliable, high fidelity detection, without the noise.

ONYX™ minimizes nuisance alarms through quantitative DAS, advanced signal processing, and machine learning classifiers. Real deployments have demonstrated over 12 months of operation with zero nuisance alarms, proving its stability in mission-critical environments. 

Proven in nationalsecurity–grade programs.

ONYX™ is operational in the U.S. Border LGDS program and supported through a multiyear CBP agreement, with additional integrations documented in large scale federal deployments. 

Award-winning, industry-recognized technology.

ONYX™ nano has earned SIA NPS Awards recognition, underscoring Sintela's leadership in high-performance distributed fiber sensing. 

Deploys on existing fiber—no special cable needed.

Designed for standard single-mode (and many multimode) telecom fibers, ONYX™ enables rapid rollouts across open pits, underground workings, and TSFs. L-band options also enable sensing on active fibers. 

Simple hardware. Low power. Built for industrial environments.

Compact, lowpower architecture with integrated edge processing reduces onsite hardware burden compared to dense networks of traditional point sensors. 

Intuitive dashboards and analytics.

A web based interface delivers GIS fiber maps, waterfall plots, real-time and historical event review, and builtin detection/classification tools—turning continuous DFOS streams into actionable geotechnical insights. 

Trusted by researchers and academic programs worldwide.

ONYX™ platforms increasingly serve as reference systems in seismology and geophysics research—including live volcano monitoring and peer-reviewed DAS studies—reinforcing the data quality relied upon for microseismic, slope stability, and tailings integrity monitoring in mining. 

Ready to Close the Gaps in Your Geotechnical Monitoring? 

If your current approach leaves blind spots between instruments, creates alarm fatigue, or can't scale across the size and complexity of your assets, it's time to talk to Sintela. We partner with geotechnical engineers, mine operators, and project leaders to design DFOS solutions that are practical, costeffective, and built for the long term—delivering minewide visibility across slope stability, underground convergence, microseismic activity, and tailings dam integrity.