MINE

DEVELOPMENT

Mining methods
Part 1 – Introduction to mining
Mining
 Mining is the process of excavating ore minerals along
with minimum waste rocks from the Earth’s crust in a
safest and economical way

 The activities consist of drilling and blasting of hard

rocks, material handling and supporting the ground
and ventilation for safe operations where required.
 Mine stages
 Prospecting - is the first stage involving search for
metallic ores or other valuable minerals by analysis of
rock formation and peculiar structures.

 Exploration – search for minerals using scientific

tools exploring hidden ore bodies. Use of geophysics
is done to detect anomalies caused by the presence of
mineral deposits through the analysis of gravitational,
seismic, magnetic, electrical, electromagnetic, and
radiometric measurements
 Mine development - work is performed to open a
mineral deposit for exploitation by either stripping
overburden for near surface deposits or excavating
openings for deeply buried deposits to prepare for
underground mines

 Exploitation is the fourth of mining stages. It is

associated with the actual recovery in quantity of
mineral from the earth by actual mining, milling and
processing of the metal, ore or gemstone.
Exploration and development can sometimes continue to
explore and open up new deposits along with exploitation.

 Mine closure and reclamation – It is final stage where

after depleting all minerals a mine is closed and the land is
rehabilitated to its original productive condition.
Part 2 – Mining methods selection
Mine method selection
 Distance of ore to the surface
 Host rock and ore strength
 Ore characteristics and nature of mineralization (Shape,
size, regularity and continuity, Strike, dip and
thickness)
 Stripping ratio (overburden and/or waste removed to
ore to ratio)
 Possibility to minimize internal and external dilution
and ore loss
 Availability of infrastructures
 Cost of mining and mineral dressing
 Production target and resource
 Value of primary, associated commodities and value
 1. Surface mines
 Surface mining methods are defined as any excavation that
commences from the natural surface and does not require
the construction of a tunnel or shaft

 Surface mining is comparatively much cheaper than

underground methods. It covers about 70% of global
mineral production.

 The first choice of hard rock mining is adopting surface

mine techniques, if the orebody is exposed or exists near
to the surface.
 Underground mining methods are appropriate to that part
of the orebody where open-pit operation is uneconomic
due to high overburden to ore ratio

 Surface methods are classified as aqueous mining which

involves use of water for extraction such as placer and
solution mining or mechanical mining including Open-
pit mining, Quarrying, Strip mining and Auger mining
 a. Aqueous Mining
 Aqueous surface mining methods, uniquely involving the
use of water for extraction, can be used in special
circumstances i.e placer deposits or solution mining
 Placer deposits can be mined by dredging or hydraulic.
These methods are suitable for deposits which are loose,
unconsolidated and semi-consolidated formed by surface
weathering, erosion of the primary rocks, transportation
and concentration of valuable minerals e.g. small deposits
of gold, tin, diamond, monazite, zircon, rutile and ilmenite
 Solution mining is mining method in which minerals are
recovered by leaching, dissolution, melting, or slurrying
i. Hydraulic mining, is a form of mining that
uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock
material or move sediment. Ideally it requires the
presence of a natural gradient away from the deposit
to facilitate hydraulic transport of the resultant ore or
waste slurry to the process or disposal area
ii. Dredging is used if a natural or human-made
body of water overlies the placer deposit. Dredging
machines such as bucket dredge can be used to dig
out ore.
Read on solution mining; leaching,
dissolution, melting, or slurrying
Hydraulic mining

Bucket dredge
 b. Mechanical mining
i. Open pit mine
 It is surface mining that most commonly deploys large
loading and hauling equipment and progresses the
excavation in a series of slices
 Used on a wide area of mineralization either exposed or
close to the surface and continues to higher depths
 It is the most economic option for a deposit up to that depth
where the economic ratio of ore and waste can sustain
 Main activities performed include drilling, blasting in hard
rocks, loading and hauling.
 The deposit is opened by a first slot known as “box-cut”
which is later expanded to benches.
Open pit design
 ii. Quarrying
 Quarrying is a special type
of open-pit mining used to
produce aggregates and
dimension stone products
 In quarries, rock joint
fractures are infrequent,
and, therefore, the bench
faces are vertical.
 Lack of fractures often
permits near-vertical
highwalls that can approach
up to 300 m
 iii. Strip mining
 Most suitable for fairly flat
shallow single-seam coal,
lignite and other bedded
deposits
 The overburden covering
orebody is composed of
even, soft topsoil and
weathered rocks which can
be stripped and removed
either by dragline or shovel
to expose the seam. Drilling
and blasting is applied on
hard rock
 Mined out rock and top soil
are used to backfill for
reclamation after the mineral
is removed iv. Read on Auger Mining
 2. Underground mines
 Underground methods are the ones in which extraction
operations are carried out beneath the earth’s surface.
 The underground mining method is appropriate to that part of
the orebody where open-pit operation is uneconomic due to
higher overburden to ore ratio aiming at minimizing waste.
 The deposit is either deep seated or has significant vertical
dimension.
 Selection of mining method depends on requirements of
ground support and spatial characteristics of the ore body
 Reflecting on ground support underground mining methods
are categorized in three classes as unsupported, supported
and caving
 a. Unsupported Methods
 It consists of those underground methods that are
essentially self-supporting and require no major
artificial system and relying instead on the walls of the
openings and natural pillars.
 Unsupported methods of mining are used to extract
mineral deposits that are roughly tabular, flat or
steeply dipping, and generally in contact with
competent wall rock.
 The class consists of five methods: room and pillar
mining, stope and pillar mining, shrinkage stoping,
sublevel stoping, and vertical crater retreat mining.
 i. Room and pillar mining
 The method is suitable for
underground bedded
deposits which are narrow
(2-4 m thick) coal seam and
free from stone bands like
coal.
 Rooms are the entryways
within the seam and series of
equidistant pillars of coal
are left standing to support
the roof of the mine
 About 30% of planned
production is obtained
during the development
stage
 The coal pillars are
recovered in sequence after
completion of development
work
 ii. Stope and pillar mining
 It is a similar method to room and pillar used in non-
coal mines where thicker, more irregular ore bodies
occur
 The pillars are usually spaced randomly and consist
of waste or relatively low-grade ore, since the richer
ore is extracted in the stopes
 iii. Shrinkage stoping
 Used in steeply dipping,
narrower tabular deposits
where broken ore is used as
work platform and temporary
support of stope walls
 Mining progresses upward,
with slabs of ore being broken
along the length of the stope
 The broken ore is allowed to
accumulate in the stope to
provide a working platform for
the miners and is thereafter
withdrawn through chutes into
haulage drifts on the level
below
 iv. Sub level stopping
 Massive and tabular,
medium to narrow width,
steeply dipping deposits
 Drill levels are developed
where straight or fan holes
can drilled and blasted.
 Broken ore is then
withdrawn through chutes
into loading crosscuts and
transported through drifts
on the level below
 v. Vertical crater retreat stoping
 Used in competent steeply
dipping orebody and host rock
 Horizontal slot (undercut) is
created at the bottom of the
block on the extraction level
and overcut developed for
drilling and charging to take
place
 Explosive charges are placed in
large diameter holes and fired.
The concentrated, "spherical"
charge is positioned at a
specified distance from the
horizontal free surface
underneath. The detonation
creates successive slices
progressing vertically upward.
 b. Supported methods
 The supported class of underground mining methods
consists of those methods that require substantial
amounts of artificial support to maintain stability in
exploitation openings and systematic ground control
throughout the mine
 Supported methods are used when production openings
will not remain standing during their active life and when
major caving or subsidence to the surface cannot be
tolerated
 Such methods are cut and fill stopping and square set
stopping
 i. Cut and fill stopping
 Cut and fill is usually
employed for weak tabular
deposits. As mining
progresses, normally
upward, sand, tailings, or
waste backfill is placed in
the stope to provide
support for the walls.
 The ore recovered in
horizontal slices, is moved
to chutes or ore-passes
mechanically, and the
waste is usually
distributed hydraulically

ii. Read on square set stopping

 c. Caving methods
 Caving methods may be defined as those associated
with induced and controlled massive caving of the ore
body, the overlying rock, or both necessary to the
conduct of mining. Subsidence of the surface
eventually follows
 There are three major caving methods: long-wall
mining, sublevel caving, and block caving.
 i. Longwall mining
 It is adapted to thin seams,
usually coal or non-metallics
at some depth
 In this method a wall of 250-
400 m long and 1-2m thick
of coal is mined in a single
slice
 The shearer cuts a slice of
coal from the coalface on
each pass and a face
conveyor carries it off the
mine
 Mining direction is always
one way leaving the goaf to
collapse behind
ii. Sub-level caving
 It is ideal for massive deposits
that must be mined
underground.
 A large block of ore, a few
hundred feet (meters) is
undercut and thereby caused to
cave
 As the block fragments and
collapses, the ore is drawn off
through chutes or loading points
into haulage drifts
 The difference from sublevel
caving and block caving is that
in sub level caving all of the ore
is drilled and blasted, and only
the overburden waste rock
caves by gravity

iii. Read on block caving

Thanks !!