SUBLEVEL CAVING

INDEX

Sl. No. TOPIC Page nos.

1. Introduction 1-2
2. Classification 3
 3. Method 4-6
4. Mechanism 7-9
5. Dimensions 10
6. Application 11-12
7. Preparation and development 13-14
8. Applicability 15
9. Advantages 16-17
10. Disadvantages 18
11. Sublevel caving being used 19
12. Case study 20
13. Kiruna mines method 21
14. Bibliography 22

SUBLEVEL CAVING

INTRODUCTION :
The most widely used mining method for extraction of thick
and pitching coal seams is sublevel caving , where the roof
and floor rocks are strong and stable.the following topics are
included here :
1. Current sublevel systems which should have wider use
in the near future.
2. Stability of siope-pillar structures analyzed for various
coal seam inclinations , where shera strength along
bedding planes , as well as , pillar size must be
considered.
3. Strata mechanics of sublevel caving analyzed for ground
stability , the key to successful underground operations.
4. The use of physical models to investigate ground
stabilities and comparison of model studies with real
mining situations.

The understanding and appreciation of topics are of

paramount importance for safe and economic coal
production. The particular importance of sublevel caving
systems is the potential for increased productions and
productivity through rapid coal production on a large
scale.
CLASSIFICATION OF SUBLEVEL CAVING METHODS :

Sublevel caving for coal extraction has been borrowed from

hard rock mining and modified to suit soft rock
deposits .generally speaking the variations in the layouts for
sublevel caving of the ore are similar to the variations found
in the hard rock mining and they can be broken down into
the following categories :

1. CONVENTIONAL SUBLEVEL CAVING , which uses the

cyclic technology of drilling and blastingto fragment the
ore , alongwith mechanized transportation.
2. HYDRAULIC SUBLEVEL CAVING , which is particularly
suited to the extraction of pitching coal seams. Water is
used both to fragment and transport the ore.
3. GRAVITY CAVING , to a certain degree represents a
transition from open stope mining. This technology is
based on the formation of an undercut followed by
gravity caving and drawing of the ore. Additional help by
drilling and blasting may be required to achieve
satisfactory caving.

METHOD :
In sublevel caving the ore is divide by sub-levels with 8-
10m vertical spacing. The sublevels are developed with a
regular network of drifts , covering the whole area of
the ore.
The overall mining progresses downward while the ore
between the sublevels is broken overhand ; the
overlying waste rock (hanging wall or capping ) caves
into the void created as the ore is drawn off. Mining is
conducted on sublevels from development drifts and
cross-cuts , connected to the main haulage below by
ramps, ore passes and raises. Because only the waste is
caved, the ore must be drilled and blasted in the
customary way; generally fanhole rounds are utilised.

The figure illustrates sublevel caving in a steeply dipping

ore body. Because the hanging wall eventually caves to
the surface, all main and secondary development is
located in the footwall. In vertical cross-sections the
sublevel drifts and cross-cuts are staggered so that those
on adjacent sublevels are not directly over one another.
Thus fanholes driven from one sublevel penetrate
vertically to the second sublevel above. Development
and exploitation operations are of necessity carefully
planned so that adjacent sublevels are engaged in
sequential unit operations.
Modern sublevel caving bears little resemblance to
sublevel caving of yesterday. Formerly a small-scale ,
labour-intensive method requiring heavy timbering,
sublevel caving evolved through research and
development into a highly mechanized, large scale
method of mining using only nominal support.

Much of the progress work took place in Swedish iron

mines; the technology was then exported around the
world. In the United States, the sublevel caving is not
widely used. However in Sweden, Canada and Australia ,
the method finds more extensive use because the ore
deposits in those countries are more amenable to
sublevel caving.

MECHANISM:
Design parameters in sublevel caving are largely a
function of caving mechanics, the branch of Rock
Mechanics related to the breakage and collapse of
unconsolidated materials in place and their flow
downwards by gravity. Although the ore has to be
drilled and blasted in sublevel caving, the overlying
rocks forming the capping or hanging wall is undercut
and caves. Extremely careful controls must be exercised
in drawing the ore to avoid excessive dilution.
Draw control is the practice of regulating the withdrawl
of ore in the sublevel cross-cuts so as to optimise the
economics of the draw. Premature cut-offs result in
poor recovery, and delayed cutoff produces excessive
dilution of the ore. Generally a cut-off grade based on
economics is employed to determine when the mucking
should cease and the next fan pattern of wholes should
be blasted.

Gravity flow of bulk materials has been studied and

analysed in bins, kilos and chutes. The results are now
being applied to sublevel caving and to specifying its
geometry,dimensions and layout. Models are very
useful to demonstrate flow principles and have been
successful in simulating gravity flow in various caving
methods. The simplest are two-dimensional, consisting
of two vertical, parallel glass plates fitted with horizontal
layers of coloured sand. As the sand flows by gravity
through an opening at the bottom, the layers distend
and reveal the flow pattern. As more sand is withdrawn
the ellipse forms ; we refer to it as gravity-flow ellipse. In
actual caving, it is funnelling action into overlying waste
that dilutes the ore during drawing.
DIMENSIONS :

The dimensions used in the extraction of ore by sublevel

caving have evolved over the years into larger, more
efficient values. In the early days of mechanized sublevel
caving, the sublevel spacing were as close as 30 ft (9m)
and the cross-cuts spacings were 20 ft(6m).
However improved understanding of flow patterns
associated with sublevel caving has resulted in current
spacings of 94ft(28.5m) between sublevels and
82ft(25m) between cross-cuts. Thus changes in the
spacings have greatly improved the ratio of production
tonnage to development tonnage. Other improvements
have also improved situations in sublevel caving. Better
utilization of larger diesel equipments, increased use of
remote controls in the corss-cuts and automation of
some of the haulage operations have all been influential
in the quest for productivity improvement.
APPLICATION :

Sublevel caving is used in steeply dipping ore bodies and in

other deposits with a comparatively large vertical thickness.
Sublevel drifts must be largely self supporting. As the drifts
are the widest self supported spaces that are required, the
method can be used in rather weak ore. The hanging wall
should preferably not be too stable as continuous caving of
the hanging wall should follow the ore extraction. The
surface conditions must allow subsidence.

Due to dilution and loss of ore, sublevel caving is most widely

used for ores which are not too valuable or which can be
concentrated by a relatively cheap ore dressing process.
PREPARATION AND DEVELOPMENT:
All caving methods require extensive development works
prior to and during mining. In sublevel caving , as much as 15
to 20% of the production takes place during development.
The major portion of the development is horinzontal , both
on haulage level and on sublevels.
The main part of the preparation consists of the very
comprehensive drifting on the sublevels. Upto 20% of the ore
is recovered during the development. In aaddition to the
drifts, ore passes and raises are required to connect the
sublevels with the main levels.

Initially a 20% inclined service ramp is driven in the footwall

rock. It is preferable to start at the top of a mining block and
drive the ramp downwards so that gravity can assist in
mucking the blasted development round, and also access can
be gained more quickly to the initial production area. The
ramp normally turns at 180 degrees about every 150 m to
keep it reasonably close to the rock disposal pass. The result
is an elongated spiralling downgrade service tunned which
stays within the limits of the mining block.
Sublevels are established by driving horinzontal access drifts
off the ramp approximately every 9 m vertically. A haulage
drift is then driven in the footwall rock about 10 m from the
footwall ore contact. Parallel ore extraction drifts 11-12 m
apart are driven from the footwall drift across the ore body
to the hanging wall contact. A slot drift is then driven in ore
along the hanging wall contact interconnecting all of the
extraction drifts at the hanging wall as well as the footwall.
In general, drifts in rock are 4.3 m wide by 3.7 m high, while
in ore they are 4.9 m wide by 3.7 m wide; a wide drift
improves recovery.
APPLICABILITY :

Sublevel caving is suitable in the following cases :

1. ROCK STRENGTH : weak to fairly strong ; may be

blocky nut should be fractured or joint or cavable ;
prefer moderate to large fragments , no fines to dilute
ores.
2. DEPOSIT SHAPE : tabular to massive ( if elongated
along one axis, preferably vertical); may be moderately
irregular
3. DEPOSIT SIZE : large , extensive , vertical or areal
extent : thickness greater than 20 ft or 6 m.
4. DEPOSIT DIP : fairly steep (> 60 degrees ) or vertical ;
can be fairly flat if the deposit is thick.
5. ORE GRADE : moderate
6. ORE UNIFORMITY : moderate , no sorting possible
(some dilution acceptable)
7. DEPTH : moderate ( <4000 ft or 1.2 km)
ADVANTAGES:
The advantages of sublevel caving may be described as
follows :
1. it can be applied to both hard and moderately weak
ground.
2. it is flexible so it can be applied to irregular ore bodies
an wide and narrow ore bodies down to about 3.7 m .
3. all operations take place in drift-size that can be well
supported and provide good conditions for accident
prevention.
4. it is suitable for a high degree of mechanization.
5. no pillars are left for subsequent high cost mining or
lost ore
6. The method can be successfully applied to pillar
recovery.
7. The sublevel caving method is regular and permits
systematic working.
8. Development, production, drilling and loading are
carried out at separate levels, continuously and
independently of each other.
9. A large number of working places are always available
for the different operation. These factors taken together
make sublevel caving very suitable for mechanization
and efficient mining.
10. The OMS in sublevel caving is higher than in top
slicing .
 11. The cost of timber is lower and less development
work is required than in top slicing.
12. The method can be applied to somewhat wet and
sticky ores not suitable for block caving.

Thus it ensures :
a. Fairly high productivity.
b. High production rate .
c. Fairly high recovery ( 80 to 90%)
d. Suitable for full mechanization
e. Somewhat adaptable, flexible and selective ; no pillars
are required
f. Good health and safety factors
g. Moderate mining cost ( relative cost about 15%)
DISADVANTAGES :
The unfavourable factors for sublevel caving are :

1. There is usually more dilution of the ore in this method

than in top slicing and square set stoping.
2. There is practically no sorting of ores in the stopes.
3. The stopes are difficult to ventilate.
4. Caving and subsidence occur, destroying the surface.
5. Draw control is critical to success of method.
6. Low grade ore in the overburden or near the boundary
of the deposits is lost.
7. High development cost.
8. Must provide stope access for mechanized equipment.
SUBLEVEL CAVING BEING USED:

The method has been used in Sweden , Canada ,

Australia and a number of other countries. However it
has not been widely used in the United States.
Applications in the literature include bituminous coal in
Hungary (Ravasz, 1984) , anthracite coal in Pennsylvania
(Green, 1985 ) , copper in British Columbia (Baase et al ,
1982) , copper and lead in Australia ( Hornsby et al ,
1982), iron ore in Sweden (Wyllie , 1994,1996) and
nickel in Canada (Espley and Tan,1994).

In general , variations of sublevel caving method are not

numerous. However one variation of the method has
been practiced at the FazendaBrasileiro Mine in Brazil to
produce gold ore (Souza el at , 1998 ). This variation is a
combination of the sublevel caving development plan
with the ore withdrawl concepts of shrinkage stoping.
The authors call this method sublevel shrinkage caving.
The sublevels are 50 ft (15m) apart with a crosscut plan
similar to that of ordinary sublevel caving.
CASE STUDY : KIRUNAVAARA IRON MINE , LKAB ,
KIRUNA , SWEDEN

The method of sublevel caving is adopted at one of the

best mechanized mines of the world, Kiruna mines of
iron ore (underground) in Sweden . It is located north of
the Arctic circle. The ore is very pure magnetite-apatite
with iron content over 60% and average phosphorous
content of 0.9%. in 1986 it has produced 17.8 Mte of
crude ore with a total employment of 1833 persons of
whom only 763 were engaged on underground
operations, achieving a productivity of 120te/manshift
for underground strength. The overall OMS for the total
total strength of underground and surface workers is
14te. Sublevels are laid out at 16.5 m centres with a 12
m vertical interval and are mined 5m wide by 4m high.
Three-boom drilling jumbos are employed to drill 48mm
dia blast holes, 3.8m deep, to achieve an advance of
3.8m per round , in the development stage. For
drifting ,hyadraulic drifters have replaced pneumatic
ores. Blasting is with ANFO and other explosives in
conjunction with Nonel system for initiation. LHDs are in
use and computer controlled driverless locomotives
traverse the main haulage level. The average train load
is 400 Mte.
KIRUNA MINES METHOD:

1.Preparations.
2.Driving a raise.
3.Cave-drilling.
4.Sub-level caving/blasting.
5.Loading.
6.Loading the train at the main level.
7.Unloading and crushing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY :

1. www.books.google.com
2. www.wikipedia.com
3. Elements of Mining Technology : D J Deshmukh Vol. II
4. Strata Mechanics : Michael L. Jeremic
5. Introductory Mining Engineering : Howard L.
Hartman, Jan M. Mutmansky