Abstract: The existence of various complex goaf in the open-pit mining realm poses a grave threat to the safety of operation in the mining converted from underground to open-pit.The composition of these various complex goaf were studied and summarized through in-situ measurement and literature data in this paper，and introduces the principles and techniques from which the GPR (ground penetrating radar) was used to detect shallow complex goaf in the open-pit mining realm including data acquisition，processing and explanations.Utilizing GPR had obviously been effective for this specific project to detect shallow complex goaf in the mining converted from underground to open-pit.Thus the GPR can be equally useful and worthy to be applied and popularized in related fields.

Key words: Transition from underground to open-pit mining, Complex goaf detection, Ground penetrating radar