Abstract. The development of a new pushback in the Kevitsa Open Pit Mine has raised concerns regarding the potential impact of minor and major geological discontinuities on the overall stability of the pit. Furthermore, the daily mining operations are continuously threatened by frequent rock falls that occasionally exceed the bench slope scale, posing hazards in terms of safety and economics. Despite these challenges, the structures or group of structures responsible for most of the rock falls have not been confidently identified. This study reviews the effect of the structural features within the Kevitsa area into the open pit excavation and the proposed slopes of the Stage 5 pit design. To achieve this, structural mapping of rock surfaces was performed using 3D photogrammetry. The collected data was integrated with geotechnical logging data and laser scan data to characterize the dominant joint orientations of the deposit. Kinematic analyses of rock blocks were carried out by stereographic projection techniques to identify potential instabilities in the bench, inter-ramp, and overall slopes of the Stage 5 pit design. Results establish that two areas in the current pit and Stage 5 have major slope instability, where bench and inter-ramp slope failures are attributed to specific joint sets. Moreover, potential planar and wedge failures of overall slope scale are identified. Based on the findings, recommendations for pit optimization and geotechnical investigations are made
