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Rock Mechanics.pdf - Mining and Blasting

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Figure 15.31 Deterioration of a<br />

cross-cut after five months, Perseverance<br />

Mine, Western Australia (after<br />

Struthers et al., 2000).<br />

LONGWALL AND CAVING MINING METHODS<br />

are relieved. Some vertical stress will be transmitted to the new mining horizon by<br />

the caved waste, but by far the greater effect will be the concentration of horizontal<br />

stresses in the lower abutment zone as shown in Figure 15.30. If the major principal<br />

stress is the horizontal stress transverse to the orebody, fewer stability problems are<br />

likely to be associated with transverse than with longitudinal sublevel caving layouts.<br />

Other than in the immediate vicinity of an advancing face, induced stresses will be<br />

less severe around the boundaries of production headings driven parallel to rather than<br />

normal to, the direction of the maximum stress. Furthermore, in the case of transverse<br />

sublevel caving, the high horizontal stresses in the production area will be partly<br />

relieved when the first slice is drawn <strong>and</strong> caving of the waste rock is initiated. Tucker<br />

(1981) reports that at Pea Ridge, the incidence of stress-induced instability was significantly<br />

reduced when longitudinal sublevel caving was replaced with a transverse<br />

method.<br />

These several aspects of cross-cut or drift stability <strong>and</strong> support <strong>and</strong> reinforcement<br />

are well illustrated by the case of the Perseverance Mine, Western Australia, Australia.<br />

At Perseverance the usual concerns were exacerbated by a weak hangingwall shear<br />

zone, swelling minerals, frequent faulting <strong>and</strong> shearing, high in situ stresses, low rock<br />

mass strengths, <strong>and</strong> an inflection or “roll” in the otherwise near vertical orebody at<br />

a depth of 420 m (Struthers et al., 2000, Wood et al., 2000). Extreme difficulties<br />

were experienced in maintaining the serviceability of production openings. Figure<br />

15.31 shows a cross-cut at a depth of 600 m with side wall closure of 3 m, more than<br />

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