Faculty of Science and Technology, School of Engineering

ENMIN 3501
Underground Production Systems

Supported Methods
 16 Supported Methods

In underground stopes, which require more than minimal support backfill is almost
universally used. The methods outlined in the following sections can be broadly
classed as cut and fill, this implies that long-term support is provided by backfill.

Cut and Fill stoping

This is an underground mining method and covers those methods in which a single
excavation pass is made and backfilled prior to another cut being made. This then
makes the distinction between these methods and other mining methods where
backfill is used but after numerous cuts or once mining is completed, such as VCR or
sublevel stoping.

Its main use is in the mining of steeply dipping vein deposits and large, irregularly
shaped deposits. It is also used in the flatly dipping South African gold reefs and in
longwall coal mining. A list of the work elements involved in cut and fill mining is
given in Table 6.

Table 6: Main work elements of the cut and fill mining cycle. (After Hartman HL,
SME Mining Engineering handbook, SME, 1992).

Variations

1 Overhand cut and fill stoping; in this method horizontal cuts 1.8-4.6m high are
mined advancing away from an access point. Excavated ore falls and rests on
the backfill floor placed during the previous cycle. As the cut and fill cycles are
completed the stope advances upward.

The backs may require little or no support other than occasional rock bolts to support
loosened slabs if the ore is competent. Where the roof is less competent the most
common means of support is by rockbolting on a defined pattern, however rock bolts
can be a nuisance when blasting the following cut and need to be removed from the
broken ore. Timber stull back and rib supports and square set timbers can also be
used.

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2 Post-pillar stoping; used for wide ore bodies with a grater vertical extent than
can be mined by the room and pillar method. As each horizontal cut is mined
and backfilled the pillars are maintained to support the roof. The pillars become
tall and slim but the backfill prevents buckling.
3 Undercut and fill stoping; this is the same as the overhand method but the
direction of stope advance is downwards. Cemented fill is used to provide the
roof or back.
4 Drift and fill stoping; this is a modern replacement for square set stoping for
wide ore bodies with moderate to poor ore competency. A horizontal cut is
mined as a series of drifts. Once completed a drift is filled with cemented
backfill and another drift can then be mined alongside it.

Figure 40: Cut and fill stoping. (After Hamrin H, Atlas Copco, Mining and
Construction Methods Guide to Underground Mining Methods and Applications,
Fourth edition, Atlas Copco, 1997, Sweden).

Excavation methods

1 Back Stoping. When back stoping enough open space is left between the backfill
surface and the stope back to drill vertical or steeply inclined blastholes into the
back in an upward direction.
2 Breasting down. This uses a vertical working face and horizontal or slightly
inclined blastholes.
3 Drifting. Used on a first cut or in other situations where breaking room is not
allowed drift rounds are used with a burn or other type of drifting cut.
4 Benching. This is the drilling of vertical down holes in underhand stoping.
5 Mechanical excavation.

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Reasons for selecting cut and fill methods

1 Ore body geometry; cut and fill is almost always considered for mining steep
veins. As some gravity flow is used the dip needs to be greater than the angle of
repose, > 45°. Well suited to irregular ore bodies. Cut and fill is selected when
manned stoping of orebodies with potentially high backs and walls as the fill
supports the walls and limits the working height by providing a suitable height
working floor.
2 Selectivity/Grade control; because of the limited open volume and support of the
fill irregular ore contacts can be followed more closely, allowing greater
selectivity and hence lower dilution.
3 Prevention of caving and dilution
4 Rock Quality Designation; the lower the RQD the more likely cut and fill will
be selected.
5 Subsidence prevention.
6 Waste disposal; waste can be employed as fill.
7 Stress control in bursting mines. Backfill acts as a method of stress control.
8 Ventilation; effective routing of ventilation can occur, the reduced open space
compared to other methods can reduce air quantity requirements.
9 Cost: generally more expensive than other mining methods, the extra cost needs
to be offset against the other benefits listed above.

Mining costs

See

Anon., 1987, “Bureau of Mines Cost Estimating System Handbook,” US Bureau of

Mines Information Circular 9142.

Excavation Techniques

Overhand Cut and fill mining

Description of Methods

See section 1.1.2 and figures 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45.

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Figure 41: longitudinal section of a typical non-mechanised breast stope. (After
Hartman HL, SME Mining Engineering handbook, SME, 1992).

Figure 42: Post-pillar stoping. (After Hartman HL, SME Mining Engineering
handbook, SME, 1992).

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Figure 43: Drift and fill stoping. (After Hartman HL, SME Mining Engineering
handbook, SME, 1992).

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Figure 44: Longitudinal section of a mechanised back stope. (After Hartman HL,
SME Mining Engineering handbook, SME, 1992).

Figure 45: Longitudinal section of a undercut cut and fill stope. (After Hartman HL,
SME Mining Engineering handbook, SME, 1992).

Overhand cut and fill mining is applicable to ore bodies with a considerable vertical
extent and dip between 50° and 90°. It is applicable to orebodies that meet one or
more of the following:

1 Require selective mining

2 Have weak walls
3 Poor continuity
4 Where other mining methods would produce excessive dilution

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Post-pillar mining is applicable to wide ore bodies, drift and fill can be applied to ore
bodies wider than 5-6m and where ore competency is moderate to poor. Back stoping
is particularly suited to steeply dipping narrow ore bodies.

Sampling during mining allows the operator to change the shape and size of the stope
as conditions change.

A common method of developing narrow veins is to drive crosscuts from a lateral in

the footwall when ground conditions are poor or where the vein is crooked. These
cross cuts are driven through the vein and raises driven on the vein from the crosscuts.
An initial drive is driven in the ore for the length of the stope as an undercut.

Access to stopes is via raises or by ramps in mines employing LHD’s. Drilling is

undertaken by jacklegs or by mobile drill jumbos. Raises are extended by shuttering
or some other method when filling is undertaken.

Underhand and fill mining

A description of the method was given in a previous section. This method can be used
when either the wall or vein is too unconsolidated to allow safe mining by overhand
techniques. It can be applied to all angles of dip.

Common elements to overhand and underhand methods

A comparison of drilling and mucking for the different stoping methods is given in
Table 7.

Table 7: Equipment requirements cut and fill.

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Blasting is usually undertaken in the following manner. Each drill hole is loaded
firstly with an initiating device along with a booster. The hole is then loaded with
cartridges or ANFO.

Ore removal is either by slusher or in mechanised stopes by LHD. The ore is cleared
from the stope via the stope orepass and then loaded into the main mine ore handling
system. Stope ore passes can be lined or unlined, the unlined type can only be used
when the ore pass is located in country rock. Ore passes located in the backfill are
usually constructed of square or hexagonal wood cribs reinforced with angle iron
wear plates or constructed of a round steel liner plate. Ventilation of a cut and fill
operation is shown in Figure 46.

Figure 46: Simple ventilation system for overhand cut and fill.

Backfilling

Waste Fill

The use of waste fill is probably as old as mining as it is useful to dispose of

development waste in old stopes to avoid having to take it out of the mine. The main
purpose of waste fill or other types of fill is to support mined out workings to prevent
one or more of the following:

1 Caving
2 Surface subsidence
3 Pressure on the working areas
4 Rock bursts

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Waste material is also conveniently available at mine sites and generally presents the
most economical method of filling mined out openings.

Sources of waste fill include but are not limited to the following:

1 Surface quarries near the mine

2 Underground development rock
3 River gravel
4 Glacial till
5 Talus
6 Dune sand
7 Mine dumps
8 Float and sink plant reject
9 Coal preparation plant reject
10 Smelter slag

Such sources may include variations like:

1 Completely ungraded waste rock with little or no fines

2 Graded and sized material with cement and water added to provide greater
strength
3 Raw materials containing sulphides or other materials to aid in fill consolidation
4 Mixtures of waste rocks and mill tails to provide a better size gradation that will
fill most of the voids in the mixture.
5 Mixtures of waste rock and smelter slag or fly ash with added cement.

Preparation of the fill will depend on the handling and placement operations that the
fill goes through. For example if waste fill is excavated in a quarry, dropped into the
mine via waste raises, trammed by rail to a stope raise and slushed into position
material < 305mm is satisfactory. The same is true for development waste. If waste is
to be handled pneumatically the fill will generally be <25mm in size depending on
pipe size.

Fill can be improved and strengthened by sizing the fines and coarser material so as
much of the void space as possible is filled and a more compact fill is achieved. To
achieve this requires additional crushing and screening and the question must be
raised ids the extra cost of doing this required?

Fill can be placed in a number of ways:

1 Slushing; directly from a waste raise to the area to be filled.

2 Slinger belt; high-speed belt and hopper supplied by truck or LHD. These
provide good compaction and a relatively strong fill if proper gradation of the
material is undertaken. See figure 47.
3 Stower placement; Dry waste, less than 76mm diameter can be placed by a
pneumatic stower, consisting of a low pressure blower and a rotary feeder,
which delivers material to the filling area by pipeline.

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Figure 47: Truck mounted slinger belt for fill placement. (After Hartman HL, SME
Mining Engineering handbook, SME, 1992).

The advantages of waste fill are:

1 Use of underground development rock reduces the cost of disposal by removing

it from the mine, also eliminates environmental problems associated with this
type of waste on surface.
2 Addition of cement or another binder can make a strong consolidated fill.

The disadvantages are that waste fill can result in a relatively loose, uncompacted fill
that will not resist closure well unless it is sized such that fines occupy most of the
voids within the fill.

A Typical backfill plant is shown schematically in figure 48.

Pneumatic fill

Disposal of mine tails, development rock and other material by pneumatic means has
been practiced in the coal industry for a number of years. More recently it has been
applied in metalliferous mining situations, notably the deep gold mines of South
Africa to reduce the incidence of rock bursts and in some uranium mines.

Pneumatic filling is capable of overcoming a number of the problems associated with

hydraulic filling, see section 2.3.3. In that voids can be completely filled with a high
degree of compaction, heavy bulkheads are not needed and development rock can be
added in underground so eliminating the need to hoist this rock from the mine.
Cement can also be easily added.

The main disadvantages that pneumatic filling has over hydraulic filling are

1 Excessive power requirements for long horizontal haul distances

2 Excessive wear problems in long pipes

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Figure 48: Backfill plant schematic. (After Hartman HL, SME Mining Engineering
handbook, SME, 1992).
Sources of material for pneumatic fill include:

1 Deposits of overburden
2 Mine dumps
3 Mine development waste
4 Float and sink plant reject
5 Coal preparation plant reject
6 Smelter slag
7 Mill tails

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Cement can be added to improve strength and stability. The main difference between
ordinary waste fill and pneumatic waste fill is in the preparation and delivery of the
fill.

Dense-phase pneumatic handling techniques are used for fine-grained materials such
as cement, rock dust, pulverised coal and chemicals that can be easily flushed. A
reciprocating compressor in these cases usually provides air at a high pressure. Dilute
phase type pneumatic conveyors are usually used to handle material used in mine
backfilling. In these cases, air is usually supplied by a fan or positive displacement
blower to transport the material at low pressures, 34-138 kPa. The particles are
suspended and carried in the airstream.

Dilute phase pneumatic conveying has been in use in the coal industry since the
1920’s. Pipeline diameter should not be less than three times the particle size,
however in practice 203mm ID pipes are used in the mining industry. Rubber lined
pipes should not be used because of their high friction factor, instead abrasion
resistant steel pipes should be used despite their cost as this can be offset against their
longer life compared to mild steel pipes.

To achieve early bearing compact stowing it is essential that the stowing material
contains material with enough fines to allow for the formation of the most densely
compressed spherical packing. To keep dust levels to a minimum at the delivery end
neither too little nor too much moisture should be present in the feed. Too much
moisture will result in a dust carrying fog, whilst too little moisture will result in
airborne dust. Moisture contents of 8-10% are recommended for material with a good
size distribution. Water is added at the delivery end via a wetting ring usually,
especially if cement is added to the mixture, but can be added at the feed end.

Essentially a pneumatic conveying system consists of a air supply, an in feed

arrangement, a pipeline and a discharge, a typical system is described below. For a
system conveying 180 tonnes/hr of refuse into a coalmine, the air requirement will be
of the order of 85-142 m3/min. For a pipeline of 200-250mm diameter the pressure
requirements would be about 104 kPa, allowing a factor of safety say 125 kPa. The
most economical method of supplying the air is a positive displacement blower.
Blowers of this type can be directly coupled to electric motors, they are of simple
construction and easy to maintain. The only disadvantages are that they suffer from a
pulsating flow and a very noisy. Because such machines are positive displacement,
blowers provide air at a pressure that increases according to the demand made on it.
Thus if the pipe becomes blocked or obstructed for any reason pressure will continue
to rise, to avoid physical damage of the motor the following protection should be
applied to the blower unit;

1 Pressure relief valve set at 125 kPa

2 Rupture disc
3 Pressure sensing switches to reduce in feed, shut down the motor if pressure
continues to increase, to shut down the motor if air temperatures become too
high, to provide electrical overload protection.

Air feed into the blower should be filtered.

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Material can be introduced into the pressurised airstream in a number of ways:

1 Lock gates
2 Pressure vessels
3 Rotary feed valves

Rotary feed valves have proven to be the best method, too avoid jamming and
associated damage the provision of a fluid coupling or shear pin is recommended.

Pipelines are generally made of hardened steel, but plastic, mild steel and fibreglass
pipes have been used. To avoid the effects of settlement in pipes and the associated
problem of slugging pipes are fitted with kickers to re mix the backfill together.

At the delivery end backfill is ejected from the pipe at high velocity and the air
allowed to flow freely, this produces a well compacted backfill.

Advantages

1 Improvement in face climate due to extra air from the backfilling

2 In uranium mines better control over radon gas emission
3 In coal mines better control over methane emission
4 Reduction in surface subsidence
5 Reduction in internal mine damage
6 Use of development waste saves on the cost of transporting this to surface and
reduces surface environmental damage
7 Problems of excess water as with hydraulic fills are eliminated
8 High velocity impact yields a well compacted fill

Disadvantages

1 If system is located underground, requires a system of transport from surface for

fill materials
2 Dust can be a problem
3 High initial capital cost
4 High operating costs
5 Noise
6 Not well suited for operations mining small crooked veins due to number of
bends and short filling time frame
7 Same as 6 for small mines, needs to be a semi-permanent set-up.

Hydraulic Fill with dilute slurry

Basically this is a dilute slurry of solids and water, ranging from 35-75% solids. This
slurry is pumped or gravity fed to the stoping areas to be filled. The simplest source
for material is mill tailings though other sources are used. Feed material needs to be <
25mm in size and a cement or binder is used. Table 8 reports on a survey of a number
of plant operating conditions and describes typical hydraulic fills for 6 different
mines. The basic characteristics of various hydraulic fills have been reported by a
number of workers and have been summarised by Dickhout (1973). A comprehensive

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discussion on such fills is given in by Crandall in the SME Mining Engineering
Handbook (ed Hartman 1992).

Advantages

Compared to waste fill

1 Better wall support due to flow against irregularities
2 Overall pressure in the workings is reduced when the improved support reduces
wall closure. This is improved by good size distribution in the fill and by use of
cement
3 Better ventilation control due to tighter seals
4 When used with cement as a floor capping provides a firm clean up surface and
a good surface for use of mechanised mining equipment
5 Surface storage and environmental problems are reduced

Disadvantages
1 If density not maintained in 65-70% range, excess water causes carry over of
slimes at the bulkheads leading to house keeping problems such as slime filled
pumps, muddy haul roads and equipment wear.
2 Excess water leads to weak, stratified cemented sand fill and wastage of cement.
3 If fill not properly drained the possibility of hydraulic failure exists
4 Slimes in sumps and shaft bottoms difficult to remove’
5 Plugged pipelines if slurry too dense
6 Excessive wear in pipelines

High Density Backfill

The development of high-density backfill began in the 1970’s because:

1 Excess water and slimes associated with most hydraulic fills cause wall
deterioration in some mines with weak ground, and provide a continual clean up
problem
2 Denser consolidated fill is more advantageous in deeper mines with high wall
pressures
3 In mines where high fill exposures were encountered in mining adjacent to fill a
stronger consolidated fill was advantageous.
4 Allows wider spans and a stronger back in undercut cut and fill mining
5 Allows the use of a greater proportion of slimes, reducing the amount required
to remain on surface
6 When cement used the low water content in high density consolidated backfills
results in maximum strength of the fill
7 Wear problems are reduced in pipelines as this type of fill is transported at lower
velocities

Such fills can be entirely manufactured from numerous sources, the most common is
mill tails. This can be strengthened by the addition of waste rock and cement.
Preparation of the fill depends on how much support is required. If it is just intended
to fill a space little or no preparation is required. If a strong clean up work floor is

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required as in an overhand cut and fill operation a graded fill with enough cement to
produce a 4.1-4.8 Mpa concrete may be required.

The fill must be designed to fit the operating requirements of the mine.

To deliver the material a positive displacement concrete or mud pump is required, due
to the high density. Cement can be added at delivery or at the plant, the former
reduces the likelihood of line plugging. The fill is delivered into an area which is
shuttered off, poured, water is then allowed to decant, the concrete is allowed to cure
for a period and then the filling operation is completed. See Hartman 1992 for some
examples.

Advantages

1 Can utilise all mill tails including slimes

2 Can utilise waste rock up to 25mm.
3 Can dispose of other mine waste products also in the fill
4 Produces a strong fill allowing underhand cut and fill stoping
5 85% solids by weight fill with a water-cement ratio that binds all or most of the
available water results in the strongest possible fill for the least cement
6 elimination of excess water problems associated with hydraulic fill
7 use of slimes fraction from mill benefits pumping or gravity flow of the liquid,
due to lubrication action
8 if cement added at delivery end, fill can remain in pipes for several days with no
start up difficulty due to thixotropic nature of the mixture
9 pipe wear reduce due to low flow velocity
10 use of timber and other support reduced due to strength of fill

11 reduction in rock burst potential in deep mines

12 reduction in dilution and improved grade control dur to better wall support

Disadvantages

1 preparation plant is more expensive and sophisticated than with other methods
2 More precise control is required
3 Requires more highly skilled operators
4 Fill costs may be higher

References

Dickout, M.H., 1973,’The Role and Behaviour of Fill in Mining’, Jubilee Symposium
on Mine Filling, Aus. IMM, Aug., pp. 2, 8, 9, 10.

Gertsch R.E and Bullock R.L Techniques in Underground Mining, Colorado: SME
Inc, 1998. Chapters 23, 24, 29, 32 and 33.

Appendix 2 of these notes

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Table 8: Survey of plant operating conditions. (After Hartman HL, SME Mining Engineering handbook, SME, 1992).

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