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Rock Mechanics.pdf - Mining and Blasting

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Figure 9.19 Maintenance of excavation<br />

boundary stability in jointed<br />

rock by mining to conformity with the<br />

rock structure, for (a) a mine drive, <strong>and</strong><br />

(b) a cut-<strong>and</strong>-fill stope.<br />

DESIGN PRACTICE IN BLOCKY ROCK<br />

Since mining engineering suffers from few of the cosmetic requirements of civil<br />

engineering, mine openings can be excavated to shapes that are more appropriate<br />

<strong>and</strong> effective geomechanically than the latter types. In mining practice, the general<br />

rule is that an opening should be mined to a shape conformable with the dominant<br />

structural features in the rock mass. Although such an excavation shape might not<br />

be aesthetically satisfying, it would represent the optimum design for the particular<br />

setting, in terms of peripheral stability <strong>and</strong> support <strong>and</strong> maintenance costs. An<br />

example is illustrated in Figure 9.19a, representing the cross section of a long excavation<br />

developed in a rock mass with a steeply inclined set of continuous joints,<br />

<strong>and</strong> an orthogonal, flat-dipping set. The crown of the excavation has been mined so<br />

that segments of the boundary coincide with a member of each joint set, to eliminate<br />

the potential roof prism. The right-h<strong>and</strong> side of the excavation has been mined<br />

to coincide with a member of the continuous joint, to eliminate the sidewall prism.<br />

The prism defined on the lower side of the left-h<strong>and</strong> wall presents no problem of<br />

potential instability. For the excavation shown, virtually all boundary stress transmission<br />

occurs across joints which are oriented perpendicular to the excavation surface.<br />

There is thus no tendency for local slip <strong>and</strong> stress relief on these features. Provided<br />

the excavation periphery is maintained in a state of compression, this design ensures<br />

that there will be no source of instability in the excavation crown <strong>and</strong> side<br />

walls.<br />

The design principle illustrated in Figure 9.19 is of particular value in mining<br />

methods such as shrink stoping <strong>and</strong> cut-<strong>and</strong>-fill stoping. In these cases, miners work<br />

beneath the subhorizontal rock face exposed by the subvertical advance of mining.<br />

Effective control of the stope crown, with the added requirement of limited support<br />

emplacement, is achieved by a stope shape mined to conformability with the dominant<br />

rock structure. Figure 9.20 shows the industrial implementation at the Mount Isa Mine,<br />

Australia, of the design principle illustrated in Figure 9.19b.<br />

In the design of a permanent mine excavation, such as a crusher station or an underground<br />

workshop, some scope usually exists for orienting <strong>and</strong> shaping the opening<br />

to produce an economic design. The general rule is that no major permanent opening<br />

should be located <strong>and</strong> oriented so that its long axis is parallel to the strike of a significant<br />

geological feature, such as a fault or shear zone. If it is impossible to avoid the<br />

zone containing the feature, the principle should be to orient the excavation axis as<br />

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