MN 322: Underground

Metalliferous Mining

LONG HOLE OPEN STOPING

OR
BLAST HOLE OPEN STOPING
(LHOS/BHOS)
Starting from footwall drive, cross cuts are
driven as in Shrinkage Stoping.
Slot raise at the end of each cross cut and
fan holes are drilled and blasted to create
troughs as in Shrinkage Stoping.
However, no undercut is required at the Sill
Level.
A slot raise is made at one end of the stope,
which is widened into a slot and straight or
fan shaped holes are drilled from upper level
up to sill level where the troughs meet.
Blasting is done from upper level by
charging and blasting one row of hole
at a time against the slot.
Blasted ore is drawn from the lower
level from the draw point troughs using
LHDs.
Please see the figures in subsequent
slides to see variations of this method.
In case the orebody is weak then it is not
safe to blast one row of holes at a time. In
such case the level interval is reduced to say
25m and the entire stope is blasted at a time
using electronic detonators.
Thus, the entire operation – slot raise,
widening of slot and blasting rows of hole
against the slot is blasted at a time using
electronic delay detonators. These
detonators are programmable to give any
number of delay sequences.
In case of Transverse Stopes the alternate
stopes are mined as Primary stopes and
backfilled with Cemented Backfill, as in case
of transverse VCR stopes. The intervening
Secondary stopes are mined subsequently
after the backfill is set.
LONG HOLE/ BLAST HOLE OPEN
STOPING
Longitudinal LHOS
TRANSVERSE LHOS