LESSON 3.
U/G MINING: SUPPORTED METHOD
• Description
It consist of those methods which require substantial amount of artificial supports to maintain
stability in exploitation openings and systematic ground control throughout the mine.
The Supported Class Methods:
1. Cut-and-Fill Stoping
2. Stull Stoping
3. Square-set Stoping
4. Resuing
Cut-and-Fill Method
• Descriptions :
• an overhand mining method where the ore are drilled & blasted in horizontal slices
(<3m), from bottom of stopes & advancing upwards same as shrinkage stoping.
• broken ore is loaded and completely removed from the stope,
• Once the slice of ore are excavated, it is filled w/ waste material of 1-3 m before the next
slice is attacked.
• Fill serves both as support for the waste and as a floor when the next slice above is
mined.
• Fill also serves as ground support for weak walls. The compressibility of the fill is the
most critical property, 25% for mechanically placed fill to 5-10% for hydraulically or
pneumatic-placed fill. About 0.60 ton of fill is required for every 1 tone of ore mined.
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• Applicability Conditions:
• Ore Strength : Mod. to strong, may be less competent
• Rock Strength : Weak to fairly weak
• Deposit Shape : tabular, can be irregular;
• Deposit Dip : Moderate to fairly steep (>45-500)
• Deposit Size :Narrow-moderate width (2-30m)
• Ore Grade : fairly high
• Ore Uniformity : moderate, variable
• Depth : moderate to deep (1.2-2.4km)
• Fill materials may be mill tailings, sand, crushed rock, boiler plant ash or slag of smelter plants.
Tailings should be sand-size as fine tailings, available from the mills where the ore needs to be
crushed very fine for treatment, are easily washed away by flowing water.
• Fill materials mixed w/ water, is transported into the mine and distributed through pipelines.
When the water is drained off a solid consolidated fill with a smooth surface is produced.
Sometimes the material in the last pour in a fill is mixed with cement to provide a hard working
surface.
• Fill material are coarse-broken muck derived from development work in the mine. Dry fill is
dropped from stope thru fill raises from level above and distributed by slusher. If the mine waste
rock are not available or unsuitable, surface materials (rock, gravel and sand) are taken.
• Fill materials can be mixed with cement to produce harder surface.
• Sequence of Development (Conventional Method)
• Haulage drift, x-cuts and draw points or draw drift together with the interlevel raises are
driven;
• Gravity flow of ore from the stope to draw points takes place through ore passes,
extended through the fill as the stope advances upward.
• Mining above the sill commences by making the first horizontal cut across the stope.
• Horizontal cuts, 1.8 - 4.6 meters in height are mined advancing away from an access
point.
• Excavated ore falls and rest on the backfilled place during the previous cut and fill cycle.
• As cut and fill cycle are completed, the stope is advanced upward. This means that an
ore block must be developed from the bottom.
• Floor mat is sometime required to prevent dilution of ore by waste.
• Sequence of Development (Mechanized Method)
• Orebody is retrieved in horizontal slices from very bottom & advancing upwards to the
surface.
• Ramps (inclined tunnels) are excavated to connect the surface to ore body.
• Drifts are excavated to come in contact with the ore slices.
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• The slices are drilled using a jumbo, blasted by charging the drill holes with explosives,
and ore is removed by using dump trucks or LHD vehicles.
• Ore is then dumped into an ore pass down into a lower elevation in the mine.
• Ore is picked up at the other end of the ore pass by a LHD to be transported out of the
mine through a ramp.
• Once slice is mined out, the empty space is partially backfilled hydraulically.
• Backfill material consisting of sand and rocks, waste rock with cement, or dewatered mill
tailings.
• Backfill materials serves to keep the mine walls stable and also as the floor for mining
the next slice.
• Mining continues upwards towards the surface until the orebody is depleted.
• Cycle of Operation:
For soft to medium hard rock: Continuous mining
For hard rock : conventional cycle
Drilling : Pneumatic hand drill (airleg/stoper), 2-3 inch hole size
Blasting : ANFO, slurries; charging by cartridge, firing electrically or detonating
fuse; blasting round consist of horizontal and inclined holes;
Secondary Breakage : (In stope) drill & blast, mud cap, impacthammer
Mucking/Loading/Slushing : LHD, scraper to chute/ore passes front-end loaders,
shovel loaders
Haulage : LHD, Truck, rail
Ground Support : Bolting/Timbering – preparation of backfill
Clean-out : Backfilling
• The purpose of mechanized cut and fill mining is to safely extract relatively high grade ore from
an irregular orebody with minimum dilution.
• In cut and fill mining, the ore is excavated in horizontal slices, starting at the bottom (sill) of a
stope and advancing upwards (crown).
MISCELLANEOUS U/G STOPING METHODS
• Three (3) Stoping and one (1) Caving methods were used in the past but because of its labor-
intensive, characteristics they are no longer considered. These methods are:
– Supported Class Methods
• Stull Stoping
• Square set
• Resuing
– Stull , Square set and Top slicing:
• are extremely poor ground where other extraction are not practical;
• require large of timbers and experienced work force in order to be successful;
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• present a fire hazard for the entire mine;
• Since the methods precludes mechanization, so their application is limited to
very high ore grades.
– Resuing :
• is applicable where the ore is not frozen to the stope walls and works best if there
is considerable difference between the hardness of the ore and the wall rocks;
• The method is labor-intensive and rarely practiced anymore, except in very high
grade narrow veins of gold and silver deposit.
Stull Stoping
• Description:
• an overhand stoping method in which a systematic or random timbering with simple
support for ground control.
• timbers are used usually single post (near horizontal deposit) or stulls (pitching deposit)
with an optimal cap or brace which are intended to provide temporary support.
• the method describe as small-scale in nature.
• Applicability Condition
Ore Strength : Fairly strong to strong
Rock Strength : Moderate to fairly weak
Deposit Shape : Approx. tabular, irregular
Deposit Dip : Moderate to fairly steep (> 45-50 deg)
Deposit Size : Narrow, <3.6m
Ore Grade : Fairly high to high
Ore Uniformity : Moderate
Depth : 1.1km
• Sequence of Development:
• after essential level of development is carried out and access to the stope is provided,
raises are driven between levels.
• ore passes are formed as stope advances, so bells and draw points are unnecessary.
• ore passes terminates in chutes to permit total gravity flow of muck through and from the
stopes.
• Cycle of Production Operation
Unlike cut-and-fill and unsupported methods, stull stoping rarely avails itself to
mechanization. The stopes are small and can not withstand or accommodate mobile
equipment. The cycle is labor intensive.
Drilling : Hand-held pneumatic drill, percussion drill (airleg, stoper); holesize, 1.5-
2.5inches.
Blasting : ANFO, slurries, charging by hand, firing electrically or by detonating fuse,
blasting rounds consist of horizontal/inclined holes
Secondary Breakage: (in stope) drill & blast, mud capping
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Loading : gravity flow to chutes in haulage drift/draw points w/ scraper, loader or LHD
Haulage : LHD, truck, rail
Most Crucial Auxiliary Operation:
Setting stulls for ground supports and must be kept installed close to the back as soon as
a round is blasted. The flooring is advanced as the stope heightens to maintain a
convenient working platform.
Square-set Stoping:
• Description
• the least used mining method due to expensive.
• are small blocks of ore which are systematically extracted and replaced by a prismatic
skeleton of timber sets, framed into an integrated support structure and backfilled floor
by floor.
• each square set is about 6ft x 8ft to side in cross section and 8ft or 10 feet in height.
• surrounding rock may be fractured, faulted and altered to such an extent that it also is
very weak.
• is flexible in that sets can be extended in any direction or can be terminated as
irregularities in the shape of the ore body are encountered.
• Applicability Condition
Ore Strength : Weak to very weak
Rock Strength : weak to very weak
Deposit Shape : any (regular or irregular)
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Deposit Dip : any, preferably > 45-500
Deposit Size : any generally small
Ore Grade : High
Ore Uniformity : Variable
Depth : deep <8,500ft (<2.6)]
• Sequence of Development
Because of the bad ground conditions, associated with square set stoping, only restricted
development is carried out. This limits the amount of opening which must be held intact
during mining where few opening are necessary such as haulage drift, x-cuts to stoping area.
One or more raises between levels are desirable for access and ventilation.
– For overhand stoping, development commences at the sill and progresses upward with
mining (undercut, bells and draw points are omitted).
– Ore passes terminate in chutes.
– a floor is mined out entirely before the next ore is extracted.
– For large stope, 2 or more working faces can be provided.
– For underhand stoping, mining begins at the crown.
– Backfilling is carried out as soon as two floors are completely mined out.
Sequence of Development & Production
Overhand Stoping:
• Driving a drift along the footwall. The posts of the drift sets are 8ft long. Stoping started on
the first floor above the level.
• As the floor has been mined, the permanent floor of the stope is constructed by placing a row
of caps called “sheeting caps,” on blocks 14in high placed on top of the drift sets.
• Round poles are now laid lengthwise of the stope on the sheeting caps and are covered with
lagging.
• Ore is blasted into slides if clean; otherwise it is shot onto the flooring and sorted.
• A shoot and manway are carried at the end of each block, and these serve later as a waste
raise and an additional manway while adjoining block is being mined.
Underhand Stoping
• A raise is driven from one level to the next through the ground to be stoped.
• Starting at the raise, a cut is mined immediately below the sill floor of the upper level.
• Sets are held in placed by booms, 5 x 10 in timbers 13ft long, placed under timbers in one
row of sets and are blocked tightly by short posts resting on the caps below.
• Booms extend far enough to hold the set being put in. if the side pressure is heavy, a
diagonal stull holds a cap in place while the ground is being mined to make a space for the
posts.
• After one set is in place, the ore immediately below is mined.
• Stoping is carried in a vertical row of sets as mining progresses, the sets are filled with raise
which is held by a floor of poles or broken lagging.
• At depth of 50ft, an intermediate level is used for tramming the ore back to the chute.
• The ore below this level is mined after all the ore in the upper section has been stoped.
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Cycle of Production Operation:
Drilling : Hand-held Pneumatic Drill, Airleg, stoper; hole size: 1.5 – 3.0 inches
Blasting : ANFO, slurries, charging by hand, blasting rounds: horizontal/vertical holes
Secondary Blasting (in stope): Not required
Loading : gravity flow to chutes in haulage drift or use of slushers
Haulage : rail, LHD
Impt. Auxiliary Operation: Ground Control, ventilation
Factors Affecting Square-Sets Mining Method:
1. Grade of ore – the ore must be high enough in grade to pay for the use of the large amount of
timber required.
2. Physical character of ore and rocks – in nearly all the mines using this method, the
enclosing rocks are broken and altered. Structurally weak ore and rocks usually go together, although
this is not always the case.
3. Size, shape, and dip of deposit – the method is very flexible and can be used in almost in any
size of deposit regardless of its shape and dip.
4. Effect of ground movement – may be some settling in the fill, and there is squeezing and
subsidence of country rock.
Resuing Method:
• Descriptions:
• A method of stoping in which the ore is broken and removed first followed by blasting
the waste and vice-versa;
• Usually the waste material is blasted first;
• Broken waste is left in the stope as filling and plank floor is laid on the fill to prevent
mixing the ore with the waste;
• Applicability Condition :
• High grade, narrow veins . It is applicable to ore is not frozen at the stope walls and
works best if there is considerable difference between the hardness of the ore and wall
rocks.
• Sequence of Operation:
When the stopes are ready, the ore and waste are drilled. The waste is blasted and loaded
first and some are leveled off. Then, wooden floor are laid over the waste and the high grade ore
is blasted down and scraped out of the stope. The procedure is repeated until the stope is mined-
out.
• Cycle of Production Operation:
Drilling : Hand-held Pneumatic Drill, Airleg, stoper with hole size of 1.5-3.0 inches
Blasting : ANFO, slurries, charging by hand, blasting rounds: horizontal or vertical
holes
Secondary Blasting (in stope): Not required
Loading : Gravity flow to chutes in haulage drift or use of slushers
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Haulage : rail, LHD
MINE UNDERGROUNG HOISTING SYSTEM
• To design and build a hoist system, the following information are required:
- Hoisting Distance
- Production Rate
- Maximum Loads
- Type of Guides (rope, steel, wood)
- Shaft Depth
- No. of Access of Mine Levels
Components of Shaft Hoisting System
1. Hoists (Drum & Friction Hoist)
a) Drum Hoist - the hoist rope is stored in the drum. The are usually located at some
distance from the shaft and require a head frame and sheaves to center the hoisting rope
in the shaft compartment.
b) Friction Hoist - the rope passes over the wheel during hoisting cycle. They are
located over the shaft, and depending upon the wheel diameter may require deflection
sheaves to center the rope in the shaft compartment
2. Conveyances
Cages- for handling personnel & materials
Skips- broken ore and waste
3. Rope
Rope Use Rope Construction
a. Hoist Rope Round strand
Flattened strand
Locked coil
b. Balance Rope Non-rotating
c. Guide & Rubbing Rope (half-locked coil)
4. Shaft
Shaft are classified as to:
a) By Purpose b) By Configuration
c) By Ground support d) By Excavation method
A) Shaft by purpose:
a) Production : ore & waste handling
b) Service : personnel & materials
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c) Ventilation : upcast & downcast airflow
d) Exploration : for defining mineral deposit
e) Escape : for emergency
5. Head Frame
It could be either wood, steel or concrete.
Two Types of Headframe
a) With Backlegs
1. A-Frame
2. Four Post
3. Six Post
4. Others
b) Tower
1. Ground Mounted Hoist
2. Tower Mounted Hoist
To compute for the no. of hoist required to meet all requirements consider the
following factors:
- determine the daily hoisting time, if 24 hours, 2 hoist
- no. of ore hoisting trip/day
- no. of waste hoisting trip/day
- no. of material hoisting trip/day
- no. of man trips/day
Ex. Time required = Daily Ore production (tons/day)
Ore hoisting (hrs/d) x Hoisting Production rate (tons/day)
• Selection of Conveyances:
To select skips/cages, the following component are to be considered:
- design methods
- factors of safety
- body
- door
- crosshead
- bail
- guide rollers
- guide shoes
• Rope Selection
– To select a rope, the following are considered:
• Strength
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• Resistance to being fatigue
• Abrasion resistance
• Resistance to crushing and distortions
• Headframe Selection
– Headframe support the sheave wheel over which a hoisting rope passes for raising or
lowering conveyances.
– To design a headframe, the following are considered:
• Loads - equipment monitoring facilities
• Foundations - conveyances handling
• Mine services - heating & ventilation
• Sinking provision - others, such as mining regulations
MINE UNDERGROUND PUMPING AND DRAINAGE
• Mine Drainage System: is nothing more than a collection of gathering points (sumps), machines
that impart energy to the fluid (pumps), transportation ducts (pipes) and control devices (fittings,
valves, etc.).
• To control nuisance water in the mines, a four (4) step process is followed:
1. prevention
2. collection
3. transportation
4. treatment
• Pump does not pull the fluid up the suction pipe, atmospheric or external pressure pushes the
liquid up the suction pipe to the pump.
Two (2) Ways in which pump are used in mine drainage situations:
1. station duty
2. dewatering
• Station-Duty
• Consist of a pump with a short suction line (less than 20ft) that removes
water from a large sump an discharges it against a constant static head.
• Dewatering System
• Is much more complex than station-duty system. An example of a
dewatering application is the removal of water from a flooded air shaft or
mine with submersible pump.
MINE UNDERGROUND HAULAGE SYSTEM
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• Haulage System – is a means of transporting men, supplies and mined material in an
underground or surface mine.
• Types of Mine Haulage System:
1. Rail System
2. Conveyor Belt System
3. Trackless/Rubber-tired System
MINE UNDERGROUND CLOSURE
• Condition of Mine Closure:
a) the mine area must be clean
b) openings must be filled & sealed;
c) waste piles must be covered and revegetated;
d) structures must be removed;
e) If possible, restore its original aesthetics
• Objectives of Mine Closure:
a) To prevent or eliminate long-term environmental impacts by returning mining-disturbed
land to a:
• physically stable;
• chemically stable;
• visually acceptable;
• productive or self-sustaining condition, taking in consideration the beneficial uses
of land & its surrounding areas and as agreed with stakeholders;
• Physically Stable:
• shall mean that the mine component (e.g., shafts, pits , tailings
ponds, waste rock piles etc.) does not pose a hazard to public
health and safety as a result of failure or physical deterioration;
• it continues to perform the function for which it was designed for
its design life;
• it should not erode or move from its intended location under the
extreme events (such as high precipitation events, earthquakes) or
perpetual disruptive forces (e.g., wind and water erosion, leaching
of rocks,) to which it will be subjected after closure.
• Chemically Stable:
• the mine component, including impounded waste, that remains
after mine closure should be chemically stable and not releasing
chemicals (contaminants) into the environment.
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• Using proven techniques, the production of contaminants should
be controlled at source using a system of containment, collection
and treatment systems in order to meet regulatory standards.
• Visually Acceptable:
• that the trace of a mining site cannot be completely removed. All
buildings and surface infrastructures must be dismantled unless
they are required/needed for other purposes.
• Accordingly, consultation with the local governments and
communities can help define what is visually acceptable.
• Productive or Self-Sustaining Condition:
• Based on the planned end-use objective, the mining disturbed land
can be rehabilitated to productive/developed use such as for agro-
forestry, agriculture or industrial facilities which may require
passive or active care.
• Self-sustaining use shall mean that the end use can be sustained by
natural processes and will not require actions by man.
• Effects of Mining Closure
1. environmental aesthetics
2. unstable ground
3. water pollution
4. loss of jobs
5. loss of flora and fauna
6. acid mine drainage
7. wide unproductive lands
8. scarcity of potable water supply
9. high level of toxicity to plants, animal & human
• Strategies to Lessen Effects of Mine Closure:
1. Develop a rehabilitation plan during planning phase;
2. During stripping, all soil cover must be stockpiled for future use once the ore is
exhausted.
3. Ensure early characterization of the materials to be rehabilitated to identify potential
issues in time for them to be resolved;
4. Manage site water to minimize erosion;
5. Design landforms which are safe, stable and symphathetic to the surrounding
environment;
6. Manage topsoil to conserve valuable nutrients and enhance the viability of native seed
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and micro-organisms
7. Seek to establish flora and fauna communities
8. Develop success criteria for mine rehabilitation
9. Establish a rehabilitation monitoring program.
MINE UNDERGROUND REHABILITATION
• Mine rehabilitation aims to minimize and mitigate the environmental effects.
• Modern mining, which may in the case of open pit mining involve movement of significant
volumes of rock.
• Rehabilitation management is an ongoing process, often resulting in open pit mines being
backfilled.
• Removal of plant and infrastructure is not always part of a rehabilitation programme, as many
old mine plants have cultural heritage and cultural value.
• Often in gold mines, rehabilitation is performed by scavenger operations which treat the soil
within the plant area for spilled gold using modified placer mining gravity collection plants.
• After mining finishes, the mine area must undergo rehabilitation activities:
For Open-Pit Mines:
• Waste dumps are contoured to flatten them out, to further stabilise them against erosion.
• If the ore contains sulfides. it is usually covered with a layer of clay to prevent access of
rain and oxygen from the air, which can oxidise the sulfides to produce sulfuric acid.
• Landfills are covered with topsoil, and vegetation is planted to help consolidate the
material.
• Dumps are usually fenced off to prevent livestock denuding them of vegetation.
• The open pit is then surrounded with a fence, to prevent access, and it generally
eventually fills up with groundwater.
• Tailing dams are left to evaporate, then covered with waste rock, clay if need be, and
soil, which is planted to stabilise it.
For U/G Mines:
• U/G rehabilitation is not always a significant problem or cost. This is because of the higher
grade of the ore and lower volumes of waste rock and tailings. In some situations, stopes are
backfilled with concrete using waste, so that minimal waste is left at surface.
• In U/G mining, the surface area can be simultaneously used for other uses - such as forests,
cattle grazing and growing crops - with little of no disruption to the existing land use.
• Mining is only a temporary use of land, so it is vital that rehabilitation of land takes place
once mining operations have stopped. In best practice, a detailed rehabilitation or
reclamation plan is designed and approved for each mine, covering the period from the start
of operations until well after mining has finished
Environmental Damage Caused by U/G Mining
• Ground Subsidence;
• Loss of potable water;
• Unstable ground for infrastructures
• Groundwater pollution;
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Strategies for U/G Rehabilitation:
1. Backfilling of mine-out areas;
2. Massive reforestation;
3. Conversion of the mine area into subdivisions, grazeland, farmlands, recreation centers,
golf course, etc.
MINE RECLAMATION
• Mine reclamation activities are undertaken gradually:
– the shaping and contouring of spoil piles,
– replacement of topsoil,
– seeding with grasses;
– planting of trees taking place on the mined-out areas
– utmost care to relocate streams, wildlife, and other valuable resources.
• As mining operations cease in one section of a surface mine:
– bulldozers and scrapers are used to reshape the disturbed area.
– drainage within and off the site is carefully designed to make the new land surface as
stable and resistant to soil erosion as the local environment allows.
– based on the soil requirements, the land is suitably fertilised and revegetated.
– reclaimed land can have many uses, including agriculture, forestry, wildlife habitation
and recreation.
• Companies carefully monitor the progress of rehabilitation and usually prohibit the use of the
land until the vegetation is self-supporting. The cost of the rehabilitation of the mined land is
factored into the mine’s operating costs.
WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED IN THE LESSON?
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