Course Title; Introduction to mining and metallurgy

Course code; IME 1205

Module; Introduction to Mining
Lecturer; Dr J Tshuma
Class 3; (Underground Mining Methods)

Objectives;
To inculcate detailed knowledge to students on the underground mining methods

Terms used in Underground Mining

Adit - Horizontal mine entrance
Back - The ceiling in an underground tunnel
Brow - Overhead rock at an Adit or Drawpoint
Crosscut - A horizontal drive through an ore body
Drawpoint - Point at which ore is extracted from a stope
Drift - A horizontal drive parallel to or along an ore body
Grizzly - A screen or grate above a loading pocket or ore pass to catch
oversized rocks
Footwall; rock or wall under which lies the ore deposit.
Jumbo - A mobile drill used in driving tunnels
Loading Pocket - Rock storage compartment
Manway - A dedicated underground opening for personnel access
Ore pass - A vertical or inclined tunnel for ore transport
Ramp; inclined underground openings for connecting ore production levels.
Sublevel; system of horizontal underground working. Sublevels are mainly used
only within stoping areas where they are required for ore production.
Shaft; Vertical or inclined underground opening for a mine work.
Slot; vertical or inclined section excavated for further stopping.
Stope; Underground excavation made by removing ore from the surrounding
rock.
Raise bore - A large drill used for vertical or inclined tunnel drilling
Round - A single blast in a drift or crosscut
Scoop Tram (LHD) - Underground loader (Load - Haul - Dump)
Skip Shaft - bucket for hoisting rock

Types of Underground Mining Methods

Underground mining is usually employed when the stripping ratio is very high. The selection
of an underground mining method is depend on a number of factors, and these factors are;

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 1. The geometric characteristic of the ore i.e the size, shape, thickness, depth and
plunge.
2. Strength of the hangingwall, footwall and the orebody
3. Economic value of the ore and the grade distribution within the ore deposit.

There are basically 3 types of underground mining methods

1. UNSUPPORTED
2. SUPPORTED
3. CAVING METHOD

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1.0 UNSUPPORTED MINING METHODS
These methods are termed unsupported because they do not use any artificial pillars to
assist in the support of the openings. However, generous amounts of roof bolting and
localized support measures are often used. There are 3 types of unsupported methods and
these are; room and pillar mining method, stope and pillar mining method, shrinkage
stoping mining method and sublevel mining method.
1.1 Room-and-pillar mining is the most common unsupported method, used primarily
for flat-lying seams or bedded deposits like coal, trona, limestone, dolomite and salt.
Support of the roof is provided by natural pillars of the mineral that are left standing
in a systematic pattern. This method is used to recover resources in open stopes.
This method leaves pillars to support the hanging wall; to recover the maximum
amount of ore, miners aim to leave the smallest possible pillars. The roof must
remain intact and rock bolts are often installed to reinforce rock strata. The mineral
contained in the pillar is non-recoverable hence is not part of the ore reserves of the
mine. The diagram below shows a particular types of room and pillar method.

1.2 Stope-and-pillar mining (a stope is a production opening in a metal mine) is a similar

method used in non-coal mines where thicker, more irregular ore bodies occur; the
pillars are spaced randomly and located in low-grade ore so that the high-grade ore
can be extracted. These two methods account for almost all of the underground

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 mining in horizontal deposits in the United States and a very high proportion of the
underground tonnage as well.

1.3 Shrinkage stoping, the ore is extracted in horizontal slices starting from the bottom
of the stope and advancing upwards. A portion of the broken ore is allowed to
accumulate in the stope to provide a working platform for the miners and is
thereafter withdrawn from the stope through chutes. As blasted rock takes up more
volume than rock in situ, some of the broken material must be removed on a
periodic manner, to maintain the requisite relationship among the back (or roof) of
the excavation, and the level of the broken material in the excavation. This is
attained by drawing the blasted material through draw points on the lower level,
which is constructed prior to shrinkage starts. Access to the space among the broken
material and the back of the excavation ought to be maintained for access of men
and materials, and for ventilation. This type of access is usually provided by
previously installed raises, normally equipped with ladder ways.
When correctly planned and executed, shrinkage mining is a very effectual technique
for ore mining and underground construction. It is used where the hanging and
footwalls of the excavation are strong sufficient to be self-supporting, although
artificial support like rock and cable bolts might be installed as shrinkage progresses.
Where the technique is used for ore mining, careful planning and scheduling are
requisite to ensure consistency of ore grade and manufacture tonnage.
Shrinkage stoping is used in precipitously dipping, relatively narrow ore bodies with normal
boundaries. Ore and waste should be sturdy, and the ore must not be affected by storage in
the stope.

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1.4 Sublevel stoping differs from shrinkage stoping by providing sublevels from which
vertical slices are blasted. In this manner, the stope is mined horizontally from one
end to the other. Shrinkage stoping is more suitable than sublevel stoping for
stronger ore and weaker wall rock.

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2.0 SUPPORTED MINING METHODS

There are basically three types of supported methods and these are;
a) Cut and Fill Method
b) Stull Stoping Method
c) Square-set stoping

2.1 Cut and Fill Method

It is the most common of these methods and is used primarily in steeply dipping metal
deposits. The cut-and-fill method is practiced both in the overhand (upward) and in the
underhand (downward) directions. As each horizontal slice is taken, the voids are filled with

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a variety of fill types to support the walls. The fill can be rock waste, tailings, cemented
tailings, or other suitable materials. Cut-and-fill mining is one of the more popular methods
used for vein deposits and has recently grown in use.

2.2 Stull Stoping Method

It is a supported mining method using timber or rock bolts in tabular, pitching ore bodies. It
is one of the methods that can be applied to ore bodies that have dips between 10° and 45°.
It often utilizes artificial pillars of waste to support the roof.

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2.3 Square-set stoping
It involves backfilling mine voids; however, it relies mainly on timber sets to support the
walls during mining. This mining method is rapidly disappearing in North America because of
the high cost of labour. However, it still finds occasional use in mining high-grade ores or in
countries where labour costs are low.
3.1 CAVING METHODS
There are basically three types of caving methods and these are;
1. Longwall Mining
2. Sublevel mining
3. Block caving method

3.1 Longwall Mining

It is a caving method particularly well adapted to horizontal seams, usually coal, at some
depth. In this method, a face of considerable length (a long face or wall) is maintained and
as the mining progresses, the overlying strata are caved, thus promoting the breakage of the
coal itself.

3.2 Sublevel Mining method

Is employed for a dipping tabular or massive deposit. As mining progresses downward, each
new level is caved into the mine openings, with the ore materials being recovered while the
rock remains behind.

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3.3 Block caving method
Is characterized by caving and extraction of a massive volume of rock which potentially
translates into the formation of a surface depression whose morphology depends on the
characteristics of the mining, the rock mass, and the topography of the ground surface. It is
a large-scale or bulk mining method that is highly productive, low in cost, and used primarily
on massive deposits that must be mined underground. It is most applicable to weak or
moderately strong ore bodies that readily break up when caved. Both block caving and
longwall mining are widely used because of their high productivity; A major challenge for
the caving method is to predict how specific orebodies will cave depending on the various
geometry of the undercut.