Aggregate stability is considered an essential indicator of changes in the physical properties of soils, and vegetation roots play a crucial role in the stability of shallow soil aggregates in ionic rare earth tailings piles during ecological remediation. In this paper, the influence of the law of ecologically restored vegetation roots on the stability of shallow aggregates of ionic rare earth tailing piles was investigated by means of field investigation tests, indoor experiments and mathematical statistics. The influence of different types of root systems on the stability of the shallow depth range aggregates of tailings piles was investigated; the correlation between vegetation root systems and the main physical parameters of rare earth tailings was clarified; and a mathematical correlation model characterizing the characteristic parameters of vegetation root systems was constructed. The evaluation index of the stability of rare earth tailings piles was constructed, and the influence of the law of the ecological restoration of vegetation root systems on the strength of shallow aggregates of ionic rare earth tailings piles was revealed. The results of the study showed that compared with the RD (root density), the root characteristic parameter with the largest response weight to the rare earth tailings pile is the RL (root length density), and the root characteristic parameter with the largest response weight to the water content is the RV (root volume). Suitable vegetation roots can effectively enhance the content of shallow large aggregates of rare ionic earth tailing piles. With the increase of the depth of a tailing pile, the content of large aggregates continues to decrease, and the content of micro aggregates continues increasing. This indicates that the vegetation root system changed the shallow soil of the rare earth tailing pile from disorderly to orderly through its own growth pattern, which effectively improved the stability of the shallow aggregates of the tailing pile and improved the physical properties of the tailing.

Previous research recognized the threat of faults to safe mining and the importance of identifying fault failure patterns, and began to use theoretical research and numerical simulations to study the activation laws of faults during mining. Conventional wisdom may suggest that the height of the fractured water-conducting zone (FWCZ) of the overburden strata over goaf will be increasingly caused by fault activation, thereby causing roof water inrush, in particular, goaf water existing in the roof of working face. Therefore, the FWCZ in the overburden strata make accurate judgments that are regarded as a key foundation to evaluate the safety of coal mining under water bodies. In view of this problem, the 15,103 working face of Wenzhuang Coal Mine in Shanxi Province were taken as the engineering background, the height of the FWCZ of the adjacent 15,100 working face was observed by drilling fluid leakage method and drilling television method, the observed results provided a reference for judgment of the height of the FWCZ of 15,103 working face. Additionally, the drilling method was adopted to conduct exploration on the terminal location of F6 reverse fault in overburden strata of No. 15 coal seam, the result showed that the disturbance range of F6 reverse fault was located in the FWCZ formed after mining the 15,103 working face. Furthermore, the method of numerical simulation analysis was used to study the failure height of overburden strata after mining the 15,103 working face through F6 reverse fault. The height of the FWCZ of F6 reversed fault was basically equal to that of the upper and lower plates, and F6 reverse fault had no influence on the height of the FWCZ after mining the 15,103 working face. There was a sufficient thick overburden strata between the maximal elevation of the fractured zone and the roof goaf water, and mining through F6 reverse fault under old goaf was safe and reliable. The research results can provide reference for the safe mining of passing through reverse faults under the influence of roof goaf water.

Within the mining boundary of an open-pit mine located in southern China, due to the intense weathering of the slope rock stratum, the quaternary loose soil layer and soft rock stratum, karst cavity and water-bearing weathered-fracture zone and other weak structural strata have posed a great threat to the side slope stability of open-pit mining. Using the Flashres64 Multichannel Ultra-High-Density Electrometer to conduct on-site detection of the slope, based on the spatial distribution of the low-resistance layer and the drilling geological data, this study interpreted the stratum lithology of the slope and conducted effective identification of the weak structural stratum. Furthermore, according to the Hoek–Brown Failure Criterion, the Flashres64 reduced the strength of the mechanical parameters of the rock-soil and weak structural stratum of the slope, and imported the relevant data into the SLIDE software for slope stability analysis. The results showed that this method could make advanced macro–predictions of the weak structural stratum occurring in intensely weathered slopes. The slope stability analysis results considering the adverse effects of the weak structural stratum were also highly consistent with the actual engineering situation, for which the application is worth promoting in related fields.

Herbaceous vegetation roots play a crucial role in improving soil shear strength during ecological restoration. This study investigates the shear strength characteristics of root-soil complexes in ionic rare earth tailings under the influence of various herbaceous plants and evaluates the applicability of the shear strength increment coefficient within the Wu-Waldron Model (WWM). By determining the physical parameters of soil samples and root system characteristics, this study compared actual shear strength increments obtained via direct shear and root tension tests against theoretical increments. The results indicate that the experimentally obtained shear strength increment of the root-soil complex is significantly higher than the value calculated using the standard WWM model. Root reinforcement is primarily concentrated in the 0–10 cm soil layer, with shear strength decreasing as depth increases. The order of shear strength increments for different vegetation types within the same soil layer is: Vetiveria zizanioides > Paspalum notatum Flüggé > Cynodon dactylon (L.) > Setaria viridis. The stress increment correction coefficient for the WWM model applied to these tailings ranged from 1.66 to 8.04. The WWM coefficients are relatively high. Its value range may be influenced by factors such as the physical properties of rare earth tailings, the calculation of the tensile strength spectrum, variations in matric suction, and assumptions regarding root failure. The coefficients derived in this study clarify the influence of different roots on shear strength and provide a valuable reference for the selection and configuration of vegetation in the reclamation of ionic rare earth tailings.