Site Selection of an Incline or Pit:

A number of factors have to be considered before selecting the site of a shaft or incline.
In mountainous regions, inclines and shafts should be always from possible path of land
slides. The site should be above the highest flood level of a river or lake in the area, and
the slope of the ground away from the shaft to facilitate drainage and movement of
mineral-loaded tubs to the crusher and tippler.
Usually the crusher and tippler are located at a higher level for flow of mineral by gravity.
A shaft or incline should be situated close to efficient transport facilities, like railway,
road or canal to avoid the need for construction of long railway line as also curves and
heavy cutting or filling for the line.

At the same time surface transport of mineral from incline or pit to processing plant
should be minimum. If the railway has to cross a big river like the Damodar, the cost
involved in bridge construction may rule out the possibility of constructing a siding.
Installation of an aerial ropeway for transport of mineral provides an alternative e.g., at
Sasti Colliery. Broken ground like goaf area and stopped area and a site near geological
disturbances like faults, dykes and sills should be avoided so that un-productive work of
long stone drift through dyke of fault should not be necessary soon after touching the
mineral.
A plentiful supply of water, not far from the shaft or incline, is essential for billers, pithead
baths, washeries, etc. Costly land should be avoided as a large number of buildings and
other installations require an extensive area.
The space near the shaft should be adequate for dumping the debris during sinking and
for the service buildings like office, lamp cabin, pithead bath, winding engine rooms,
crèche, canteen, screening plant, repair shops, etc. In the case of metal mining if ore
preparation mill or plant is to be located near the shaft, mill tailings occupy a large
surface. The site should be level or nearly so over a wide stretch.

In some mines large dumping space near the shaft is required to dump underground
stone or shale bands or to dump washery rejects if a washery is planned. Sufficient
space should be earmarked for further expansion programme.
For a coal seam of moderate inclination the shaft may be in the middle (dip-rise
direction), but where the seam has more inclination, it is convenient to so place the shaft
as to have nearly one-third area on the dip side and two-third on the rise. This facilitates
underground transport and drainage of rise areas towards the shaft. Shafts for sand
stowing pipes are however on the rise side of the property. Ventilation shafts used
mainly for upcast air where exhaust fans are used are also the rise side.
If the surface of the mine leasehold is not hilly and the land is nearly flat or uniformly
sloping, it is convenient to have production shafts in the middle of the mine area as
transport of the mineral on the surface can be arranged by locomotives, belt conveyors
or by rope haulage to coal handling plant or mineral bunkers. Maintenance and
supervision of surface transport arrangements is more efficient than underground.
An incline has to be situated near the outcrop and its site does not offer as much choice
as a pit. The section of shaft site is, however, a major decision. Shaft sinking being a
costly process, nature of strata through which shaft has to be sunk should be
ascertained by a proving bore hole near the proposed shaft site. Trial pits 3 m to 5 deep,
are sunk to test bearing pressure of the soil for structures associated with winding and
other heavy installations.

The incline in a coal mine should have practically equal area upto a maximum of 600 m
on the strike, on either side, for development by rope haulage. This limit may be
considered at 1000 m for belt conveyors. Larger area on the strike requires more
inclines. The shaft should have nearly equal width on either side along the strike for
development.
Shape, Size and Number of Shafts:
It shafts are circular in shape; rectangular shafts are rare in this country, the exceptional
cases being some of the shafts in metal mines. The finished diameter of a shaft varies
from 4.2 m to 6.7 m.
Where a shaft accommodates a pair of single cages (a cage capable of an
accommodating a single tube only), the diameter may be nearly 4.2 m; where a pair of
tandem changes (a cage capable of accommodating two tubs) is used, the finished
diameter may be 5 m to 6 m.
At Chinakuri colliery employing two single deck cages, each cage accommodating one
31/2 te mine car, the coal raising shaft is 6.0 m finished diameter for a planned
production of 50,000 te per month. At Sudamdih colliery, the main coal winding shaft has
7.2 m finished diameter.

The main shaft for mine entry at Jaduguda mine is circular, 5 m finished diameter, fully
lined. It is equipped with 2 multirope friction winders, one winder for cages, and the other
for a skip having a counter balancing weight. Each cage has 2 decks and is for a
payload of 3 1/2 te or 50 men. The skin has a capacity of 5 te payload. The cages run on
rigid guides whereas the skip and its balancing counterweights run on rope guides.
Under the mining Regulations each seam should have a least two outlets to surface
separated by a minimum of 13.5 m at any point. The general arrangement is to sink two
shafts close to each other, separated by 30 to 60 m, for facility of a quicker
intercommunication.
Unless the two shafts are connected by underground tunnel no development work inside
the mine is permitted under the law. One of the shafts serves for mineral winding, and
the other for ventilation, man riding and material transport. The upcast shaft, having air
locks, may be used for small quantity of raising, which may be from a separate seam, or
form a different level. This helps in grade control.
The nearness of the two shafts permits common boiler plant, pit-tip arrangement,
screening plant, crusher plant and siding. The pit-bottom arrangements also may be so
laid out that loads of one shaft may be directed to the other, if desired.

An extensive property, say 2.5 km 2 or more may have two or more pairs of shafts,
situated far apart far mineral winding only if deposit is at a shallow depth. Geological
disturbances such as faults or dykes may require divisions of the area into convenient
zones and shafts may be sunk to serve each zone.
Such division into zones may sometimes be desirable if a river, railway or major trunk
road (e.g. G.T. road in Bengal and Bihar coalfields) exists on the surface as each of
these features requires solid block of mineral to the left-in-situ. In each zone the mineral
winding shaft may be so situated as to have 50% to 60% area on the rise side. Moreover
the extent served by a mineral winding shaft should be such that the manager of the pit
has not more than 2,000 to 2,500 men including surface workers in his unit for ease of
supervisor and control.
Depth of Shaft:
The shaft should reach nearly 5 m below the lowest bed to be worked to accommodate
cheese weights of the guide ropes. If guide ropes are clamped to the girders at
underground decking level, shaft may extend only 2 m below the girder level. Where skip
winding is adopted the shaft should be sunk deeper by a minimum of 6 m below the
underground decking level, depending mainly upon the height of the skip.
In an incline mine in coal upcast ventilation pit should be so such that the pit bottom is in
coal which is comparatively stronger than near the outcrop. This reduces the cost on
supporting sides and roof of the gallery leading to the ventilation pit-bottom.
The return air is warm and laden with moisture, gases, etc. and has a weathering effect.
Because of this consideration the upcast shaft should touch the coal seam in 3rd or 4th
level if the mine is laid out on bord and pillar system.
The deepest shaft in coal mine in this country (600 m depth) is at Chinakuri Colliery.
Shaft Pillar:
Since the inclines and shafts serve as means of access to underground mines
throughout their life they should be in strata which are not likely to subside or collapse. In
a mine a solid block of rock known as shaft pillar should be kept on all sides of the shaft,
and only essential rods should be driven through it. Any attempt to extract mineral from
the shaft pillar on its periphery will weaken it, and verticality of shaft may be affected, or
it may collapse.
On the surface some buildings and other installations have to be situated very close to
the shaft for technical reasons, e.g., winding engine rooms, boiler plant (in case of steam
winders) and fan house. Some other buildings, for the sake of convenience and easy
supervision, are also installed close to shaft e.g., workshop, electrical sub-station, lamp
cabin, pit head bath, office, store, etc.

Screening plant, coal bunkers and coal handling plant, crushers are usually situated
near the shaft to reduce cost on surface transport though benefit of centralisation for a
number of mines may sometimes dictate otherwise. Such buildings and installations last
for the whole life of the mine and the shaft pillar should be of such a size as to support
them.
The Mines Regulations do not prescribe any specific size of shaft pillar. It may be said in
broad terms that in coal mines one side of a square shaft pillar should be equal to depth
of the seam and the essential surface buildings or installations likely to last the whole life
of the colliery, should be located within the area of the shaft pillar.
In most of the mines in our country where mineral is raised through vertical shafts, the
standard arrangement is to bring the mineral loaded tubs to the shaft bottom and push
them into the cage for hoisting to the surface. The cage loading arrangements are in
shaft level which is a level road in coal on either side of the shaft.
Such shaft level in coal and the other roadways in coal leading to the shaft level, as also
essential excavations like pit bottom sumps, underground sub-station, etc. in coal itself
demand generous dimensions of the shaft pillar. If however, the shaft level is in stronger
rock like stone, as in Chinakuri mine.
The shaft pillar in stone need be of comparatively much smaller size. In the case of skip
winding loading of the skip is by a chute at the bottom of a coal bunker which is in stone
below the coal gallery housing the tippler.
In coal mines worked by horizon mining and in the case of metalliferous mines the pit
bottom/plate are in stone. In all such cases where the pit bottom loading arrangements
are in stone, the shaft pillar is in stone and of smaller size compared to what it would
have been in coal.
Some thumb rules based on experience have been advanced for the side of a shaft pillar
in coal.
Considerating D depth of shaft in m,
t = thickness of the seam in m,
R – radius of shaft pillar in m.
1. DRON’S Rule – Area of the shaft pillar = area to be supported + D/6 on all sides.
2. Foster’s rule – R = 3√Dt
3. Wadin’s Rule – For shafts upto 100 m depth, size should not be less than 36.5 x 36.5
m. Thereafter for every 36.5m depth, increase size by 9 m.
4. Mining Engineer’s Rule – For shallow shaft, Minimum radius for shaft pillar is 18 m.
For deeper shaft –
R = 18.3 + D√t/32.8
5. O’Donahue’s Formula for Inclined Seams:
If D – depth of shaft; x = angle of dip of coal seam, then y will be D sin x cos x (See Fig.
6.6).
S = Margin of safety, usually equals to 5% to 1.0% of the depth;

Then width of pillar on the rise side = S + D/7 + 2y/3

Do dip side = S + D/7 – y/3
Do along strike = S + D/7
To calculate the size of a shaft pillar the scientific approach is based on the “angle of
draw”. Precise observations and scientific studies have not been made in this country to
ascertain the angle of draw for the various coalfields but the Central Mining Research
Station has conducted experiments in a few cases.
In Fig. 6.6 is the surface area which needs to be supported. If the angle of a draw is
known the shaft pillar may be set out as shown in the figure. It should be that angle draw
to the dip of the workings and to the rise of the workings have different values.
In the case of an incline or adit there is no such thing as “shaft pillars”. In a coal mine
developed on bord and pillar method two pillars of coal are left unextracted on either
side of the incline for its support and essential buildings and installations can be located
to the rise side of the incline mouth. In a metalliferios mine also a solid block of rock is
left in-situ on either side of the incline and its dimensions depend upon the strength of
the rock.
After the deposit has been entered through an incline or pit, arrangements have to be
made at the top and bottom of the pit/incline to deal with the planned output of the mine
in an efficient manner.