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Rock Mechanics.pdf - Mining and Blasting

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Figure 13.17 Relation between<br />

yield of an orebody (given as<br />

equivalent working height, he), room<br />

span <strong>and</strong> real working height (after<br />

Salamon, 1967).<br />

PILLAR SUPPORTED MINING METHODS<br />

the mining geometry may be assessed by considering an arbitrarily thick orebody,<br />

selecting particular stope spans <strong>and</strong> working heights, <strong>and</strong> calculating pillar dimensions<br />

(as discussed in option (ii) in the preceding design exercise) to achieve a required factor<br />

of safety for the pillar-supported structure. Salamon carried out this type of exercise,<br />

for the field conditions of a mining depth of 152 m, <strong>and</strong> a required factor of safety<br />

of 1.6. The results of this exercise are presented in Figure 13.17, in which equivalent<br />

working height is shown as a function of actual working height, for selected stope<br />

spans. The observation from the plots is that independent increases in stope span<br />

wo <strong>and</strong> real working height h both lead to increased equivalent working height, <strong>and</strong><br />

therefore to increased yield from the orebody. The significant engineering inference<br />

is that recovery from an orebody may be maximised, while assuring the integrity of<br />

the support system, if the following conditions are met simultaneously:<br />

(a) the maximum (i.e. complete) thickness of the orebody is mined;<br />

(b) the maximum room span consistent with assuring local stability of wall rock is<br />

mined.<br />

These conclusions may appear self-evident. The reality is that they are a direct result<br />

of the nature of the pillar strength formula. A different relation between pillar strength<br />

<strong>and</strong> pillar shape <strong>and</strong> dimensions could conceivably have led to different geometric<br />

requirements for maximising volumetric yield from an orebody.<br />

Having shown how maximum mineral potential of an orebody can be achieved in<br />

a pillar-supported operation, it is useful to explore the way in which maximum yield<br />

varies with geomechanical setting. The volumetric extraction ratio R can be seen,<br />

from Figure 13.16b, to be given by the ratio of equivalent working height he <strong>and</strong><br />

orebody thickness M; i.e. introducing equation 13.20<br />

388<br />

R = he/M = h/M[1 − (wp/(wo + wp)) 2 ] (13.21)

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