Underground Mining with Backfill

by

Tony Grice
Senior Mining Engineer

Australian Mining Consultants

L19/114 William Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000

tgrice@ausmin.com.au
Tel: +61 3 9670 8455

Fax: +61 3 9670 8311

The 2nd Annual Summit Mine Tailings Disposal Systems, Brisbane

24-25 November 1998

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

INTRODUCTION

Backfill is an increasingly important component of underground mining operations around

the world. This paper will give a brief overview of the current application of mining with
backfill technology, focusing on Australian operations. In the context of this summit, the
disposal of mine tailings underground not only reduces the environmental impact but
provides the base of an engineering material which can be used to improve both the
ground conditions and the economics of mining. Carefully engineered and efficiently run
backfill systems can significantly enhance a mining operation. By contrast, badly
engineered and poorly run backfill can be a serious impediment to the mine and, worst of
all, compromise safety.
This paper will briefly describe how backfill contributes to a mining operation, the types
available and some mining methods that use it. It will cover the method of selecting the
appropriate backfill system and some of the challenges and opportunities that arise from
the selection process.
The paper will discuss each of the backfill types in turn, commencing with hydraulic fills.
The concept of mine tailings disposal will be expanded to include waste rock in order to
cover the important rock backfill systems, which are used in the biggest underground
mines. The paper will then cover pastefill, which has been newly reintroduced into
Australia.
The following terms will be used throughout:

Hydraulic backfill

Deslimed mill tailings slurries, with densities raised to

over 70%Cw (solids by weight). The coarser fractions are
placed underground as hydraulic backfill and the slimes
rejected to the surface dam.

Paste backfill

Total mill tailings filtered or thickened to around 80%Cw

to which cement and water is then added to achieve the
required rheological and strength characteristics. Any
rejects to the dam are at the full tailings sizing range.

Rock backfill

Waste rock from surface or underground and crushed to

a typical top size of around 40mm. This can be placed as
is or with cemented hydraulic backfill slurry or cement
water slurry.

WHAT IS BACKFILL?

Backfill refers to any waste material that is placed into voids mined underground for the
purposes of either disposal or to perform some engineering function. Waste materials used
include waste development rock, deslimed and whole mill tailings, quarried and crushed

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

aggregate, and alluvial or aeolian sand. Other exotic backfill types used overseas include
ice and salt.
The waste materials are often placed with very lean cement or other pozzolanic binders to
improve the strength properties.
Gravity based delivery methods are utilised for slurry based systems with the dense
tailings slurry being delivered by pipeline to the disposal point in the stope. These
pipelines can range from low pressure (less than 1MPa) turbulent flow systems for
deslimed slurries to high pressure (greater than 5MPa) laminar flow systems for pastefill.
Sometimes backfill only acts as a void filler and needs only sufficient strength to prevent
any form of remobilisation. Where backfill is used as an engineering material it requires
sufficient strength be exposed by ore pillar mining in tall vertical faces or undercuts. Lean
cement addition is used to generate unconfined compressive strengths ranging from 0.5 to
4 MPa.
The other essential requirement is that backfill must be of low cost. Typical costs of
backfill range from $2 to $20 per cubic metre, depending on the duty required. These
costs can be a significant contribution to the operating costs of the mine. Where cemented
backfills are used, these costs tend to be between 10 and 20% of the total operating cost
of the mine and cement represents up to 75% of that cost.
3

WHY BACKFILL?

Backfill has a typical low modulus of elasticity of around 500MPa and is typically one to
two orders of magnitude less stiff than the surrounding rock. The purpose of the backfill is
not to transmit the rock stresses, but to reduce the relaxation of the rock mass so the rock
itself will retain a load carrying capacity and will improve load shedding to crown pillars
and abutments (Barrett et al, 19781). This leads to less deterioration in ground conditions
in the mine, improving operations and safety.
Adding low percentages of ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) of between 3% and 6% by
weight, permits the development of cohesive strength and the ability for the backfill mass
to be self supporting when exposed in vertical faces by adjacent pillar mining. The self
supporting nature of the backfill permits higher recovery of pillar ore, which in turn
improves the utilisation of the mining reserve and the economics of the mining operation.
Increased ore recovery results in longer mine lives.
In some mining methods the backfill forms a working platform for people and equipment
and therefore must be capable of supporting the traffic. Generally, cement is not required
in this application.

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

The placement of backfill underground directly reduces the quantity to be disposed on

surface. This has direct operating and capital cost benefits and reductions in future
rehabilitation costs.
Nantel (19982) raised the emerging trend in Canada where future environmental
permitting for underground mines will require the return of the maximum quantity of mine
wastes to the underground workings. This trend has reached the logical limit in the recent
Federal Government recommendation approving an option for the proposed Jabiluka
Mine (JMA alternative) where ALL milling wastes may be required to be placed
underground.
4

MINING METHODS USING BACKFILL

Early mining methods either left open voids after the ore had been removed or permitted
the caving of the surrounding waste rock. Caving methods often resulted in surface
subsidence. Temporary and permanent timber supports enabled larger sized workings and
there is a rich history of mining in the 18th and 19th centuries using timber alone. One of
the earliest records of backfilling in Australia as a discrete technique was the placement of
aggregate from lead jig wastes at Mount Isa in 1933 tipped directly from the mill by
conveyor to square set timber stopes. This was done both for disposal purposes and for
stabilising the working areas by providing an improved platform.
Cut and fill mining methods evolved to use hydraulic fill as a bulk filling material. The
tailings slurries were deslimed and densified to achieve a reasonable permeability and to
minimise the water that would drain out. The fill would provide an effective surface to
walk on after a few hours and for equipment to be moved on it within a day or so. The fill
would provide a mucking horizon and confinement to the exposed rock below. In some
mines, cement was routinely added to improve cohesion but at significant additional cost.
Rock and other mine wastes were routinely disposed in cut and fill stopes.
At the Black Swan nickel mine in WA, a marker bed of finely graded and compacted sand
is placed on the top of the placed rockfill to act as a digging horizon and to prevent the
loss of high grade nickel ore into the fill (McGurk & Lock, 19983). At Henty Gold Mine
in Tasmania, paste backfill is being placed in the cut and fill stopes (Henderson et al,
19984).
The benching method evolved from experience with sub level open stoping and applying
the long hole drilling methods to the cut and fill mining areas. At Mount Isa, the cut and
fill stopes (MICAF) were initially mechanised to use trackless development equipment
(MECAF) and then long hole drilling rigs were introduced to mine several lifts in one go,
over short strike lengths. Hydraulic backfill, dry aggregate and mine development waste
are used when available (Villaescusa & Kuganathan, 19985). The controlling factors on
backfill placement are the need to maintain stable bench sizes and the need for working
platforms for the heavy mobile equipment.

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

Long hole open stoping methods with post backfill have become a major low cost mining
method around the world. By designing integrated mining and backfill systems, very high
ore extraction ratios are possible. Using combinations of cemented and uncemented
backfill optimises costs. At Mount Isa, crushed rock was added at high ratios to cemented
hydraulic fill to create very lean cement masses. Early experience quickly showed that
exposures 40 metres wide and virtually unlimited in height could be created with little risk
of fill failure (Leahy & Cowling, 19786). A large number of stopes were filled with
cemented hydraulic fill alone where geometry precluded the addition of rock. All stopes
not requiring future re-exposure were filled with uncemented hydraulic fill. These stopes
were an important part of the backfill operations since these stopes often formed low
priority sand dumps where deslimed tailings could be placed whenever other sources
were not available. Considerable quantities of deslimed tailings have been placed
underground at Mount Isa through the life of the mining operation. Bloss (19967) records
that 64 million tonnes of backfill has been placed into the 1100 Orebody since 1973, over
half of which has been deslimed tailings.
Coal mining in Australia has not traditionally used backfill, relying instead on caving of the
overlying sediments with surface subsidence occurring in shallower operations. By
contrast, Polish coal operations have widely used hydraulic backfill to both minimise
surface subsidence and to enable thick seam extraction methods (Palarski, 19938). An
Australian desktop study (ACARP, 19979) has identified the use of washery tailings to
improve the extraction potential of punch mining in highwall coal operations.
More recently, Wambo Mining Corporation placed cemented backfill into a series of
headings in the path of the Longwall No. 9 at Homestead Colliery near Singleton. The
sand, flyash and cement mix was designed to 4MPa strength. This permitted the
uninterrupted mining through the heading area without the need for several weeks of
shutdown. No ground stability problems were encountered and Wambo concluded that
the cost of the backfill project was revenue positive. This technique has a wide range of
applications to underground coal mining problems.
Lane10 will be discussing details of disposal of tailings into open pits later in this summit.
Other uses of backfill in open pits include the early extraction of ore in the crown between
the pit and the underground workings and replacing it with a stiff and impermeable
backfill pillar.
5

FRAMEWORK FOR BACKFILL SELECTION

The selection of a backfill system for a mine is increasingly a part of the overall plan for
the mining of the orebody. This plan takes into account the full life cycle of the operation,
including shutdown and rehabilitation of the site. Clearly, the use of backfill in the mine
will reduce these end of life costs and the overall environmental impact. Discounted
cashflow techniques are the appropriate technique to provide the economic analysis. This

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

permits assessment of the full operating and capital costs of the project and takes into full
account the impact of expenditure on backfill now compared to rehabilitation later.
The assessment of the use of backfill in a mine is an iterative process. During the
feasibility stage, a number of mining methods may be identified for a particular orebody.
Factors such as mining rate, resource recovery and dilution levels are considered. These
will provide a base set of options from which improved alternatives can be compared. The
mining methods can then be considered from the view of the backfill systems. Questions
arise that need to be addressed;
What improvements to ground conditions can be expected?
What is the increase in resource recovery rate?
What is the impact on ventilation?
Do the dilution rates increase or decrease?
Will cement from fill dilution affect metallurgical recoveries?
Is cyanide an issue?
The answers to some of these questions can have a significant impact on the mining
method selection and this cycle of mining method and backfill type design can iterate a
number of times to determine possible options.
The primary source of backfill materials will be local to the mine. As this summit attests,
the tailings from the processing of ore are the most readily available source of backfill
materials. Placement as backfill will directly offset disposal costs and will have
environmental credits that are frequently intangible within our current costing and
accounting systems. Understanding the characteristics of the tailings material such as
sizing, mineralogical composition, rheology and reactivity are important numbers of which
we will hear much discussion during this summit.
Open cut operations move considerable quantities of waste rock. Will that rock be
suitable for use as an aggregate in backfill? The Australian experience would be that much
of the weathered surface rock in this country is unsuitable, but fresh or marginally
weathered material is frequently acceptable. The underground development operations, by
contrast, produce large volumes of fresh broken rock, much of which is suitable for
backfill use.
Surface sand is a valuable resource for backfill use. Prestripping operations to prepare for
surface infrastructure, the pit, waste dumps and even the tailings dams themselves can
yield useful quantities of material. This can be used directly as backfill material such as the
proposed use at NFMs Callie Mine where the initial sand will be sourced ahead of the

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

waste rock dumps. In Canada, the use of alluvial and glacial sands is common in pastefill
systems to improve both the economics and the performance.
The primary external component of backfill will be the cement binder. The uncompetitive
cost of domestic cement supplies and the transport distances involved result in cement
costs representing over one half of the total cost of backfill systems. There has been
continual research into alternative binders such as pozzolans to minimise this cost. Mount
Isa has used ground copper furnace slag since the early seventies and Olympic Dam uses
fly ash. In Canada, iron blast furnace slags are widely used.
For each of the backfill materials, various process and transport methods are available.
Each of these should be considered in turn. For example, Olympic Dam deslimes the
neutralised mill tailings, raises the density of the slurry, adds binder and crushed aggregate
in a pugmill. The resultant mix is then transported in 30 tonne end tipper trucks and
dropped into vertical boreholes drilled from surface to each stope below at 400 metres
depth. Scuddles Mine in WA deslimes the tailings and then delivers the high density slurry
by gravity pipeline to the underground workings. When the backfill system is running the
slimes fraction is sent to the tailings dam and during down times, the full mill tailings go to
the dam.
The range of mining methods, backfill types, supply and processing options are then put
together to determine a short list of two or three technically feasible systems. Only those
systems that meet all of the operating and geotechnical needs of the mine are included in
this list. The systems are then assessed economically using discounted cash flow
techniques and using long term or life of mine time scales. Tangible environmental factors
are readily included at this phase of the analysis.
The mining systems with backfill are then ranked in terms of technical feasibility and
economic desirability. These are compared to the base case and the change in project net
present value can be used as the major economic indicator. In a recent study conducted by
the author an older mine, which was considering backfill to improve ground conditions,
demonstrated an increased value by the introduction of backfill. This was despite the
increased operating cost since backfill permitted sill pillar recovery and extended the life
of the mine and cashflow by an additional 6 to 9 months.
6

BULK AND EXPOSABLE BACKFILLS

There are several ways of classifying backfills, both by type and by function. An essential
distinction from the design point of view is whether the backfill is to be used essentially as
void filler or will it be exposed by future mining of ore pillars. Prior to the advent of paste
backfill systems this classification could be described as cemented or uncemented.
However, paste needs small quantities of cement in all backfill placed to eliminate the risk
of liquefaction, therefore this classification is no longer appropriate. A preferred
classification is given below:

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

Bulk Backfill

Waste materials placed into a stope for the purpose of

disposal and or to provide confinement to surrounding rock
walls. The upper surface can be used as a working platform.
Resistance to rock wall closure effected by intergranular
friction of the backfill.

Exposable Backfill

Engineered materials with cement and or other binder added

which has sufficient cohesion to support its self weight when
exposed either as a vertical face or in an overhang by the
blasting of adjacent pillar ore.

CEMENT AND OTHER BINDERS

The strength of particulate materials is generated by intergranular friction with little or no

cohesion present. Sometimes, water tension in unsaturated conditions can generate an
apparent cohesion. Thats why wet sand works better for sandcastles than dry sand. Since
we cant control water content to such a fine degree then other binders must be added to
provide the cohesion and increase the strength of the material.
By far the commonest binder that is added to backfill is OPC GP Grade. Typical
addition rates up to 6% by weight are added into hydraulic fill and 4.5 to 5% by weight
into paste fill and rock fills. The cemented rock fills which utilise hydraulic fill as the
source of fines are the most efficient consumers of cement and total addition rates as low
as 2% can be used.
These addition rates generate cohesion values of around 250 to 500kPa and unconfined
compressive strengths from 0.75 to 4MPa. These strengths are sufficient to enable the
backfill to be exposed in vertical walls up to 40 metres wide and virtually unlimited in
height.
The cost of cement can represent more than half of the operating cost of the backfill
system. There has been continuous research around the world into alternative binders and
the most common solution has been the use of pozzolans such as fly ash and blast furnace
slags.
OPC is a hydraulic cement, which means that it reacts with water alone to form the
cement binding alumino-silicate products. Pozzolans, by contrast, require the presence of
lime in addition to the water for the cementing reaction to proceed. The lime is usually
generated as a by-product of the initial hydraulic cement reaction.
Mount Isa uses ground copper furnace slag to replace half of the cement in backfill and
has saved over 25,000 tonnes of cement annually as a result. Olympic Dam utilises flyash
from Port Augusta.

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

More recently, synthesised hydrophilic alumino-silicates have been developed in China11.

These complex binders are capable of taking up 32 molecules of water per binder
molecule and have been demonstrated to solidify tailings slurries of around 50%Cw with
only low addition rates. These binders are currently not commercially viable.
Gypsum has been tested as an alternate binder with limited success (Petrolito et al,
199812). Gypsum is being used for pillar replacement in small gold mine applications.
8

BACKFILL TYPES AND MATERIALS

The three backfill types that will be discussed are:

Hydraulic backfill

Deslimed mill tailings slurries, with densities raised to

over 70%Cw (solids by weight). The coarser fractions are
placed underground as hydraulic backfill and the slimes
rejected to the surface dam.

Paste backfill

Total mill tailings filtered or thickened to around 80%Cw

to which cement and water is then added to achieve the
required rheological and strength characteristics. Any
rejects to the dam are at the full tailings sizing range.

Rock backfill

Waste rock from surface or underground and crushed to

a typical top size of around 40mm. This can be placed as
is or with cemented hydraulic backfill slurry or cement
water slurry.

HYDRAULIC BACKFILL

Hydraulic backfill is produced by cycloning of mill tailings slurries to produce a coarse

dense underflow. Typical specifications of hydraulic backfill are:
Not more than 10% by weight of size fraction less than 10 (micrometres) in
size. This ensures that acceptable permeability of the placed fill is achieved.
Slurry density is greater than 70%Cw (solids by weight). The high density
minimises the drainage of transport water. The target density is a function of
particle specific gravity and the controlling parameter is %Cv (solids by volume)
which balances the requirement to transport the slurry without plugging the line
and excess drainage water. The practical range is between 45%Cv and 50%Cv.
Hydraulic backfill slurries are transported by gravity through boreholes and pipelines to
the stopes. The slurry enters the stope and the solid particles consolidate rapidly. The
excess transport water in the slurry will initially pond above the current solids layer, but
under the influence of gravity will commence on a generally vertical drainage path

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

downwards. The rate of drainage is a function of the permeability of the backfill and the
driving head. The quantity of water that will drain is a function of the initial slurry density
and the residual moisture content of the backfill. The quantity of drainage resulting from
slurry densities of around 70%Cw is as little as a quarter of the drainage resulting from
55%Cw slurries.
Free draining hydraulic backfill has a typical porosity of around 50%, can be walked on in
a few hours and is trafficable within 24 hours.
Where the hydraulic fill is to be exposed, cement addition rates of around 6% are typically
required and this will result in unconfined compressive strengths of greater than 750kPa
within 28 days. Higher strengths and faster curing can be achieved by adding extra
cement.
At Mount Isa cemented hydraulic backfill consisting of 3% OPC, 6% ground furnace slag
(to produce 6% equivalent cement) and 91% deslimed tails are routinely exposed over
widths of 40 metres and over 100 metres high.
The primary advantage of hydraulic backfill is the simplicity and low cost of production
and delivery. Uncemented hydraulic backfill can be placed for less than $2 per cubic
metre. Increasing strength is a simple matter of adding cement.
There are two significant disadvantages to hydraulic backfill. The first is that permeable
barricades must be designed and constructed to retain the backfill and permit the free
drainage of excess transport water. Barricades are commonly built with porous concrete
bricks and take a two man crew between 2 to 3 shifts to complete. This occurs as a
critical path activity between the completion of production in a stope and the
commencement of filling.
The second disadvantage is the management of water in the fill and the requirement to
pump this water out of the mine. When controls on slurry density are lax, excessive water
can result in ponding of water in the stopes, which can lead to the development of erosion
pipes and cause barricade failure. In calendar 1997, there were nine such incidents; in
1998 there have been none reported. The risk of barricade failure and the consequences of
a backfill inrush are a serious safety issue that requires management focus to ensure that
the risk factors are managed. The guidelines of fines removal and placement at high slurry
densities eliminate those risk factors.
10

CEMENTED ROCK BACKFILL - WITH HYDRAULIC BACKFILL

The performance of cemented hydraulic backfill can be improved by the addition of

crushed rock at high proportions. The cemented rock backfill used in the Mount Isa
copper orebody includes quarried siltstone crushed to minus 75mm size to the hydraulic
fill at the rate of two parts of rock to one part of hydraulic fill. The resultant mix is 1%
OPC, 2% CRFS, 30% hydraulic fill and 66% rockfill. This mixture develops strengths of

10

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

around 1.5MPa in 28 days and can be exposed in large exposures and on several sides in
succession.
The advantage of the rock addition is that it trebles the tonnage rate of filling (doubling
the volumetric rate), increases the strength and performance and reduces equivalent
cement consumption to below 2% by weight. Instantaneous backfill rate at Mount Isa is
around 350m3 per hour.
Olympic Dam uses higher cement and flyash proportions and delivers at a higher slurry
density than Mount Isa. Strengths in excess of 4MPa are routinely achieved. The new
expanded backfill system to meet the needs of the larger mining operation is designed to
place cemented rock backfill at the rate of 300m3 per hour.
Bronzewing in WA is just commissioning a cemented rock backfill system with a rate
capability of around 100m3 per hour.
11

CEMENTED ROCK BACKFILL - PC SLURRY

A variation on cemented rock backfill, widely used in Canada, utilises crushed waste rock
and Portland cement slurry added at rates of around 5% by weight. No mill tailings are
used and consequently the overall sizing curve is short on fines content. This reduces the
workability of the placed backfill and necessitates the higher cement addition rates for
equivalent strength performance. This technique has been used at the Williams Mine in
Ontario and the initial temporary filling at Bronzewing has employed a surface batching
plant to produce this type of backfill.
12

TOTAL TAILS - PASTE BACKFILL

Total tailings paste backfills were developed originally by Preussag in Germany and
utilised at the Bad Grund Mine in the late seventies. Development in South Africa and
more intensively by INCO in Canada substantially refined the system. The first paste
backfill system in Australia was installed at Elura mine in NSW in the mid 1980s but this
was not successful. More recently, Henty Mine in Tasmania commissioned a 10 to 15m3
per hour paste system and Cannington in Queensland is now running a 100m3 per hour
system. Mount Isa is constructing a 300m3 per hour hybrid plant for the Enterprise
Copper Mine capable of delivering a high density uncemented hydraulic fill or cemented
paste backfill.
Paste backfill consists of the full size fraction of the tailings stream prepared at a high
slurry density. The slurry behaves as a non-Newtonian fluid, which means that it requires
an applied force to commence flowing. An example of a Non-Newtonian fluid that is in
common use is toothpaste and the applied force (yield stress) explains why you have to
squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube. The paste has a higher viscosity than hydraulic
backfill and exhibits plug flow when transported in a pipe. The outer portions of the slurry
shear against the sidewall of the pipe and the central core travels as a plug.

11

UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

The friction factors generated require that high pressure pipelines are used to transport
pastefill. Pressures typically exceed 5MPa. Early systems used high pressure reciprocating
pumps but experience has shown that paste fill can be readily by transported by gravity
alone, provided that the reticulation geometry is favourable.
The higher slurry densities improve the water to cement ratios and for a given tonnage of
pastefill, lesser quantities of cement are required to achieve comparable strengths to
hydraulic backfill. This has obvious operating cost benefits.
The higher density and reduced permeability due to the inclusion of fines also results in
negligible water drainage from the paste fill. The need for engineered barricades is
removed and the nuisance of drainage water and impact on ventilation is eliminated.
Typically, backfill systems have utilisation rates of between 66% and 75% which results in
paste being deposited into the surface dams during down periods. The material placed in
the dams from a pastefill system has improved particle sized distribution over the slimes
generated by hydraulic backfill systems and improved geotechnical properties.
There are a number of disadvantages to paste backfill systems and these relate to the
higher capital cost primarily attributable to the expensive filter dewatering systems and the
complexity of operations and supervision required to ensure that line plugging does not
occur.
Because of the inclusion of the slimes fraction and the non draining nature of the backfill,
cement must be added to all pastefill placed underground including the fill that will not be
exposed by subsequent mining. Adding cement at around 1.5% by weight will eliminate
the risk of liquefaction. This aspect places a significant operating cost penalty to the use of
paste fill compared to hydraulic fill which due to its free draining nature can be readily be
placed in uncemented forms. In mines, which have high proportions of cemented backfill
such as open stoping, the disadvantage is minimal. In mining methods such as cut and fill
where the use of exposed fill is minimal, the penalty is large.
Another problem with paste backfill is the incorrect perception that ALL tailings can be
returned underground. Pastefill tends to have a lower porosity ranging from between 35%
and 50%Cw compared to between 40% and 55%Cw for hydraulic backfill. This means that
slightly more pastefill can be returned underground than hydraulic fill but the difference is
marginal. As the porosity values show it is unlikely that there will be sufficient ore
removal or void underground to place all of the fill back underground.
A recent exercise was conducted to compare the options of placing all pastefill back
underground compared to surface storage. It was shown that for this operation there was
an excess mine volume of 46% which would have to be created to store the paste. The
cost of mining this additional volume far outweighed the cost of surface disposal and
subsequent rehabilitation.

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UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

13

CONCLUSIONS

Backfill is an increasingly important component of underground mining operations. As

mines get deeper, the need for improved ground control and maximised resource recovery
is essential to their safe and economic operation. The total management of waste materials
at the mine site needs to be engineered into the design of the mine. Increasingly,
environmental considerations are showing that improved waste management procedures
have benefits to the mining operations. Regulators are increasingly requiring the prior
planning of final site restoration as part of the initial mine plan.
Mining with backfill technology helps mining companies achieve many of these goals.
Backfill minimises the total quantities of materials to be managed on surface. The waste
materials can be engineered to give support and strength properties that improve the
safety of the mining operations and the economics of the enterprise.
The technology of backfilling enables a wide range of engineering solutions to particular
mine sites and their unique sets of problems and opportunities. There is not one universal
solution to backfill or mine tailings disposal systems.
AMC predicts that there will be many more developments yet to be seen in this rapidly
emerging area of technology.
14

REFERENCES

Barrett, JR, Coulthard, MA and Dight, P.M. (1978) Determination of Fill Stability, Mining with
Backfill, 12th Canadian Rock Mechanics Symposium, CIM Special Volume 19, Sudbury, Ontario May 2325, 1978
2

Nantel, J (1998) Recent Developments and Trends in Backfill Practices in Canada, Minefill 98,
AusIMM, April 14-16 1998, Brisbane
3

McGurk, TJ and Lock PR (1998) Maximising Recovery at Silver Swan Nickel Mine using Cement
Stabilisation, Minefill 98, AusIMM, April 14-16 1998, Brisbane
4

Henderson A, Jardine G & Woodall C (1998) The Implementation of Paste Fill at the Henty Gold Mine,
Minefill 98, AusIMM, April 14-16 1998, Brisbane
5

Villaescusa, E and Kuganathan, K (1998) Backfill for Bench Stoping Operations, Minefill 98, AusIMM,
April 14-16 1998, Brisbane
6

Leahy, F & Cowling R (1978) Stope Fill Development at Mount Isa, Mining with Backfill, 12th
Canadian Rock Mechanics Symposium, CIM Special Volume 19, Sudbury, Ontario May 23-25, 1978
7

Bloss, ML (1996) Evolution of Cemented Rock Fill at Mount Isa Mines Limited, Mineral Resources
Engineering, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1996), 23-43, Imperial College Press

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UNDERGROUND MINING WITH BACKFILL

Palarski, J (1993) The Use of Fly-ash, Tailings, Rock and Binding agents as Consolidated Backfill for
Coal Mines, Minefill 93, SAIMM, Johannesburg 1993
9

BFP (1997) Improved Recovery in Highwall Mining Using Backfill, ACARP Project C3052, Australian
Coal Research Limited.
10

Lane C (1998) Reducing Capital and Operating Costs by Using Inpit Tailings Disposal: Marymia Gold
Operations Case History, 2nd Annual Summit Mine Tailings Disposal Systems, AIC Worldwide,
Brisbane 24-25 Nov 1998.
11

Sun Henghu, Liu Wenyong, Huang Yucheng & Yang Baogui (1998) The Use of High-Water Rapid
Solidifying Material as Backfill Binder and its Application in Metal Mines, , Minefill 98, AusIMM, April
14-16 1998, Brisbane
12

Petrolito J, Anderson RM & Pigdon SP (1998) The Strength of Backfills Stabilised with Calcined
Gypsum, Minefill 98, AusIMM, April 14-16 1998, Brisbane

14