NexGen Technologies for Mining and Fuel Industries

ISBN 978-93-85926-40-2

Evaluation of safe stoping parameters at underground

manganese mine by numerical modelling
M.N. Bagde, A.G. Sangode and J.C. Jhanwar
Nagpur Research Center, CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Nagpur, India

ABSTRACT: The mine, which is named as Kandri mine, is an underground manganese mine of
M/s Manganese Ore India Ltd. The hydro-geological conditions of the mine are such that ground
water occurs within weathered, jointed and fractured zones of the rock. The movement of ground
water is controlled by the number of in-situ factors like; joint spacing, its extent and continuity as
well as interconnection of joints, thickness of the weathered zone and topography of the area, etc.
It also occurs under confined conditions wherein fractures, joints and shear zones are deep seated.
The paper deals with the various results obtained from the field studies, their interpretation and
application in planning suitable mining method to recover thick, wide and complex manganese
ore-body in south extremity of this mine. The numerical modelling is used to arrive at safe stoping
parameters in complex condition prevalent at this mine.

1. INTRODUCTION
appears near the southern edge of the Kandri

M /s Manganese Ore India Limited is the

country’s largest producer of high grade
manganese ore at the present. In early 1896, the
establishment then known as Central Provinces
Prospective Syndicate (CPPS) started its first
mine at Kandri located in Ramtek Tehsil of
Nagpur District of Maharashtra State in India.
The total lease hold area is around 0.8306 Km2.
The manganese deposit in this area belongs to
Munsar rock formation of Sausar Group. Rocks
are mainly Meta-sediments comprised of mostly
quartzite, schist and gneiss. It is overlain by
muscovite-schist and feldspathised-quartz-gneiss
and underlain by mica-schist (Ramakrishnan
and Vaidyanadhan.[1]). Dolomite marble is seen
to be well developed in the area. The dolomite
formation is folded and as a result of which the
exposure attains to appreciable width. The
rocks generally strike approximately east-west
along the foot of the hill. While, at the south of
the Kandri mine, it is gradually swinging to the
north-west at its western edge. The rock re-
mine, where, again it is intimately folded. As a
result of the complex set of faults, rocks on the
footwall and the hanging wall sides of the main
ore body are badly fractured. The mine was
first worked by the opencast method of
working and after reaching its economic limits
(i.e., R.L. 280 m), an underground method of
working was adopted by driving an incline. The
S-shaped ore body in this mine is divided into
three sections: the North Limb, the South Limb
and the South Limb extension with extremity.
The study area covered in the present study is
South Limb extremity in between crosscut 8
and 11 and generally 70–90 m wide ore body
dips at 20°–30°. The wide thick manganese ore
body encountered in the recent past in South
Extremity zone of the mine is of the great
importance from the recovery point of view due
to its high grade ore quality. At the same time,
method for its recovery is also a challenge due
to the complex rock mass conditions, hydro-
geological as well as complex geological

591
sttructure. Sincee, the orebodyy in this partt is ground level (Figuree 1). The groound water
suuddenly plungiing to 25–30 degrees from the occurrennce is observeed underneathh the water
eaarlier 45–50 degrees.
d In thhe present papper, table condition
c andd mostly in weathered,
geeo-hydrologicaal parameters derived throuugh jointed and fractured zones of the rocks. The
vaarious field stu
udies conductedd are summarizzed. movemeent of groundd water flow is mostly
Thhe use of numeerical modellinng is applied in the controlled by the number of geological
prresent study too derive safe stooping parameters. parametters including joint spacing, its extent
Inn the present paper,
p results obtained throuugh and conntinuity along with
w interconneection of the
nuumerical modeelling studies as a well as hyddro- joints, thickness
t of the
t weatheredd zone and
geeological studyy is presented and
a discussed. topograpphy of the areea etc. The minem area is
comprissed of highly fractured,
f joinnted, faulted
and foldded rock masss. It is found to t be water
2.. GEOLOGY Y AND HYDR
RO-GEOLOGY
Y pervious or strong watter permeable and a average
OF THE MIINE permeabbility is found to decrease with
w increase
Thhe Sausar Folld Belt (SFB)) is an importtant in the depth
d due to thhe closing of jooints, faults
coonstituent of th
he Central Indiian Tectonic Zoone and otheer fractures. Thhe representativve borehole
(CCITZ)—a crusstal-scale Pre--cambrian mobbile profile from
f the mine area is shown in Figure 1.
beelt running E–W W through the Indian Peninsuular Also shhown in this figure is waater aquifer
Shhield (Radhak krishna and Naqvi
N [2]
). SSFB
B is presencee in the form m of “Dolom mitic Kast”
M
Meso-to-Neo-pr roterozoic in agge (Sarkar et all.;[3] (Source: Shrushti Sevaa Report[6]).
R
Roy et al.[4]) and comprisees of two maajor
litthotectonic en nsembles, viz., Tirodi Biootite
G
Gneiss (TBG) and migmaatite and meeta-
seedimentary saausar group (SSG). Lithoolo-
giically, SSG reepresents a craatonic assemblage
off metamorph hosed quartzite, pelites and a
caarbonate (Chatttopadhyay annd Ghosh[5]). The T
m of the regional area of thhe mine belongs to
most
thhe Sausar grou up of the rock formation. Thhese
roocks have beeen highly afffected by seveeral
cyycles of tecton nics activity inn the past on the
geeological part.. Based on the remote senssing
daata numerous lineaments
l havve been identifi
fied. Fig. 1. The representatiive borehole proofile showing
Thhe various stu udies carried out by the various the preseence of dolomiticc kast aquifer (ree-drawn from
orrganizations inn the area havve concluded that t the source data[6]).
thhe proposed mine
m is locatedd in the footw wall
roock and litho o-logically it is comprises of The ground water conddition was firsttly analyzed
doolomite and quartz
q muscovvite schist as the through the obtained data
d of boreholle, dug well
allternate formattion. The mangganese ore occcurs and hyddrological geoology of the mining
m area
beetween 174 to 192 m depth. The drilling raates through various studies conducted in the past.
suuggest that fo ormation is looose on the top The stuudies includedd are Verticall Electrical
foollowed by sem mi-compact inn nature. In doolo- Soundinng (VES) interrpretation of thhe first two
m formation,, there was suudden collapsee of
mite layers only by geophyysical survey caarried out in
thhe drilling rodd, which sugggests the soluttion the areaa. In addition to that pumpiing test for
chhannel presencce in the form mation. The high
h aquifer parameter determination
d has been
w
water dischargee (5–6 lps) at two sites in the conductted in the area. The pumpiing test for
caase of pumpin ng well (PW) and observattion aquifer parameter
p deteermination wass carried out
w (OW) was recorded at thhe depth of 1011 to
well in the area
a based on the geologicall report and
1007 m and 28 to t 34 m, respecctively, below the discussiion with thee mine plannner’s. The

592
geometry of aquifers is considered for mining
operation. The corresponding aquifer is con-
sidered for aquifer parameter determination.
Keeping in view the possible inter-connectivity
of all aquifers through cross-flow and fault
zones, a multi aquifer well field is constructed
to carry out pumping test as well. Aquifer
parameters are the one of the most important to
derive at mine inflow estimation. The obser-
vation well data is analyzed and results
are provided in Table 1. The pumping well
was pumped at the constant discharge rate of
518.4 m3/day but after 70 minutes the discharge
was dropped to 259.2 m3/day. The analysis of
the data indicated that after 70 minutes of
pumping the cone of depression touched the
mine boundary with large diameter borehole at
the distance of 55 m from the pumping well.
This bore holes were connected to the
underground mine and found to discharging
water into the mine, thus, creating a negative
head for the pumping test under operation. The
mine bore hole is found to be acting as a barrier
zone and the discharge rate is determined to the
tune of 259.2 m3/day. The effective thickness
of aquifer considered is based on fracture/
solution channel pattern of lithology and cross
flow through aquiclude is at 92 m. The water
head over ore body at pumping site is 155.88 m
as on the test date.
Mine inflow prediction for underground
manganese mine is a complex process since
there are so many non-ideal conditions which
become operative during the mining. This
suggests that adequate model may be an
approximation. In this approach, the open
section of drift is approximated as suitable
dimension ellipsoid or cylindrical and the line
section is ignored. Flow towards this opening
can be analyzed using non-linear equation. This
have been used to incorporate inter granular
laminar, fracture and turbulent flow condition.
It is expected that during mine development
under in-situ condition the mine inflow will be
insufficient. In the case during blasting and
other mine operations, the fracture zone, fault
zone and solution channel zone may be
activated to encounter the predicted flow per
day to the tune of 343 m3/day, 1087 m3/day and
593
7233 m3/day, respectively. In case, all are
activated simultaneously the peak flow will be
8663 with 4235 m3/day as the stabilized flow.
Thus, it is expected that Mine Management
may have arrangement for pumping of 10,000
m3/day. In normal condition the pumping
arrangement need is for 1500 m3/day. In the
case of worst condition, it is expected that
arrangement of pumping water to the tune of
10,000 m3/day may be required during the
actual mining operation in the south extremity
area. The aquifer parameter of different rock
formations is also estimated and provided in
Table 1 (Source: Shrusti Seva Report[6]).
Table 1. Aquifer parameter-formation wise
Multiple Aquifer
Quartz
Aquifer parameter Dolomite Dolomite Mica
kast fracture Schist
fracture
Transmissivity 79.10 86.29 41.38
(m2/day)
Hydraulic 4.94 1.39 0.45
conductivity (H)
(m/day)
Aquifer Thickness 16 62 92
(m)
Source: Shrushti Seva Report.[6]
3. SUGGESTED MINING METHOD
The manganese orebody in the south extremity
at this mine is quite wide at 60 to 90 m and
15–20 m thick characterised by the presence of
various geological disturbances, weak hangwall
and footwall rocks, water bearing strata, friable
orebody with intrusion of quartz mica schist,
water aquifer in the form of Dolomitic Kast. In
view of this scenario, Room and Pillar method
of stoping with post pillar of 5 m thickness at
every opening span of 10 m appears to be
feasible. The proposed stope dimensions based
on the various other studies carried out and
keeping in mind above reported conditions
related to the geology and hydro-geology are:
stope length-30 m, stope height-30 m and stope
width not to exceed 20 m at any time during the
actual stoping operation. Bieniawski’s RMR
and Barton’s Q is used to characterize the rock
mass as well as to verify roof spans and to
recommend support systems. Average combined
RMR for rock masses was at 30–40, classified
as poor rock mass. According to Barton’s Q at
0.04 rock mass was classified as extremely
poor. Overall rock mass was rated as poor to
extremely poor in the South Extremity zone
with the impact of the sheared claystone beds
and intrusion of quartz mica vein in the ore
body and also the presence of surcharged water
bearing strata in HW and FW. Also, rock mass
quality was much lower in the case of ore body
due to being friable in nature, presence of
sheared zone and intrusion of quartz and clay
bands. Also, Potvin’s Stability graph method
along with Laubscher’s approach and other
empirical approaches are used to arrive at safe
opening span and support system. Various
approaches in vogue are used to obtain various
design parameters including support system as
provided in Table 2. Since orebody is wide,
thick and geologically disturbed, the present
practiced horizontal Cut-and-Fill method at
Kandri mine is substituted with the 'Room and
pillar with post pillar' and proposed for its
implementation. Zhang et al.[7] have successfully
implemented Room and Pillar mining in the
case of hydro-geological problems at the
Baixiangshan iron mine.
The geo-mechanical properties of intact rock
samples as obtained from laboratory tests are
given in Table 3. The quartzitic ore materials is
relatively weak with average uniaxial com-
pressive strength of 20 to 57 MPa in the case of
South extremity ore body.
The simulated natural in-situ horizontal
stress σh is nearly equal to the vertical stress σv;
this corresponds to a representative natural stress
ratio σh/σv for the Indian mining conditions. The
in-situ stresses is determined using equations
provided by Sheorey[8] as applicable for Kandri
mine and is tabulated in Table 4. These values
along with geo-mechanical properties given in
Table 3 are used in numerical simulation in the
case of plan model considered.

Table 2. Stope design parameters using various approaches

Recommended
Parameter Approach applied Remarks
parameter
Opening span 2.5 m RMR = 35 and Q = 0.04 Working height and
unsupported span
Stable zone 10 × 10 m (Square), 5 m Potvin’s Stability Graph Adjustment factor of 0.5
(Tunnel) applied for entry methods
Roof bolt 1.5 m long @1.8 m RMR, Q and Potvin’s Stability Matches with the existing
support spacing Graph practices

Cable bolt 12 m@1.8 m spacing
support in-between roof-bolts
Safe pillar size 22 m (19.5 m solid and
2.5 m opening width)
Rib and Post 6 m rib and 5 m post
pillar pillar
RMR, Q and Potvin’s Stability Matches with the existing
Graph practices
Laubscher and Sheorey Matches with Coal Mines
regulation
Obert-Duval and Hoek-Brown SF ≈1.5 for 30 m working
height

Table 3. Average geo-mechanical properties of the tested rock

EY
Rock type UCS (MPa) ν ϲ (MPa) Φ (()) Remarks
(GPa)
Granitise schist/ 20 7 0.18 5 52 Mostly HW rock
Quartzitic schist
Dolomitic schist 29 10 0.28 7 40 Overlying Formation
Quartz schist 57 10 0.10 13 36 Mostly FW rock

594
Table 4. Modelled in-situ stresses[8] based program PHASE 2 of Rocscience Inc
Principal stress Magnitude Stress Canada.[9] The objective of the numerical
component (MPa) (MPa) modeling studies is to validate the proposed
Major (Horizontal), 3.2 + 5.45 stoping parameters derived from the various
σ1H 0.0122*H (m) empirical studies and also to decide the
Intermediate 3.2 + 5.45 extraction sequence of the four designated
(Horizontal), σ2H 0.0122*H (m) panels P1, P2, P3 and P4 considering safety of
Minor (Vertical), σ3V 0.027*H (m) 4.9 the workings, men and machineries. In
numerical simulation, four panels each of 20 m
Accordingly, it is planned that the ore body width and 30 m height with 6 m rib pillar in
shall be divided in-between four parts – Panel 1 strike as well as in dip direction is considered.
(P1), P2, P3 and P4 by providing in-situ rib Figure 3 shows the part geometry and strength
pillar of 6 m thickness along the strike as well factor within the rock mass and 6 m-rib pillar
as dip direction in the south extremity as shown after the extraction is carried out in stages of
in Figure 2. The main haulage roadway should 2.5 m and followed by sand backfilling after
be placed in the footwall rock, which should be every stages of extraction. After comparing
at a safe distance of 30 m from the footwall results presented in Figure 3, it is observed that
boundary and not less than 10 m at any time due strength factor within the surrounding rock
to the irregular shape of the ore body to facilitate mass and 6 m rib pillar after extraction
the extraction of the ore during stoping operation sequence followed is well above at 2.0 in most
(Figure 2). The systematic presentation of of the cases and 1.5 at few locations in the rib
mining and stoping parameters and operation pillar. The various extraction sequences are
plan is shown in Figure 2. followed in numerical simulation and finally
diagonal line of extraction is suggested as shown
in Figures 2 and 3. Based on the numerical
simulations carried out with various sequences
of extraction, the extraction sequence is
recommended as given in Table 5 for the
success of the proposed stoping operation. The
proposed extraction sequence is very necessary
to avoid build-up of stresses as well as inter-
section of mining induced stresses while
mining various panels simultaneously. Also,
diagonal line of extraction is suggested as shown
therein while re-treating and final recovery of
the ore.

Fig. 2. Systematic plan showing designed stoping

mining method in the case of south extremity ore zone.

Fig. 3. Strength Factor contouring after P1, P2 and P3

The extensive numerical modelling studies extracted and backfilled completely and P4 under
is carried out with the help of finite element extraction in final stage.

595
Table 5. Sequence of extraction recommended
Panel Sequence of operation
P1 Start extraction with P1
P2 Start P2 extraction when 25% extracted and
backfilled is done in P1
P3 Start P3 extraction when 50% in P1 and
25% in P2 extracted and
backfilled is done, respectively
P4 Start P4 extraction when 75% in P1, 50% in
P2 and 25% in P3
extracted and backfilled is done
respectively.
4. CONCLUSIONS
The wide and thick ore body in the South
Extremity at Kandri Mine is associated with
complex geological structure and presence of
water aquifers in the form of dolomitic karst.
The presence of water aquifer and complex
nature of manganese ore body make it a
daunting challenge towards mining and final
extraction of high quality manganese ore. Based
on the rock mechanics studies and applications
of empirical and numerical approaches, room
and pillar stopnig method with post-pillar is
suggested. Based on the hydrological studies, it
is recommended to have necessary pumping
water arrangement to the tune of 10,000 m3/day
to deal with any exigencies arising during the
actual mining operation in the south extremity
area. The success of the proposed mining
method will depend on the proper planning and
execution with implementation of comprehens-
ive instrumentation monitoring programme
during the actual stoping operation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thanks are due to the M/s MOIL Ltd for
sponsoring this study and mine management
for their help during field studies. Thanks are
also due to Dr. A.K. Soni, Dr. M.R. Saharan,
Sri B. K. Jha and Sri Naseem Sheikh for their
help during the course of the study. Thanks to
Sri G. G. Manekar for his valuable input and
discussion made during the course of the study.
596
Thanks are also due to M/S Shrusti Sewa for
their valuable input on geo-hydrological study.
Sincere thanks are due to Dr. R.K. Goel, Chief
Scientist, CSIR-CIMFR, Research Centre
Roorkee for his valuable suggestions and review
of the manuscript. Permission granted to
publish this paper by Director, CSIR-CIMFR is
highly acknowledged. The views expressed
therein are of the authors and not necessarily of
the Institute they belong to.
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