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Rock Mechanics.pdf - Mining and Blasting

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LONGWALL AND CAVING MINING METHODS<br />

Duplancic <strong>and</strong> Brady’s observations at Northparkes confirm the previous general<br />

finding that for boundary collapse to occur, a flat lying discontinuity set is required<br />

to act as a release mechanism.<br />

A third general case must be considered. If the horizontal in situ stresses <strong>and</strong> the<br />

tangential stresses induced in the crown of the undercut or cave are high enough<br />

to develop clamping forces which inhibit gravity-induced caving, but are not high<br />

compared to the compressive strength of the rock mass, caving may be inhibited <strong>and</strong><br />

a stable, self-supporting arch may develop. In this case, several serious consequences<br />

can follow. Production will cease in the area, there will be a possibility of damage to<br />

installations <strong>and</strong> injury to personnel from the impact loads <strong>and</strong> the air blast that can<br />

be produced when the arch eventually fails, <strong>and</strong> the expense of the measures that may<br />

be necessary to induce caving can render the operation uneconomic. Kendrick (1970)<br />

provides an instructive account of the difficulties caused by the arrest of caving <strong>and</strong> the<br />

measures taken to re-initiate caving at the Urad Mine, Colorado, USA. Kendrick found<br />

that once a stable arch had formed across the minimum dimension of an undercut<br />

area, the maximum dimension could be extended considerably without causing the<br />

ore to cave.<br />

At the Northparkes E26 Mine, New South Wales, Australia, hydraulic fracturing<br />

<strong>and</strong> a boundary slot were used to attempt to induce continuous caving after caving of<br />

Lift 1 had been arrested (van As <strong>and</strong> Jeffrey, 2000). A massive air blast resulting from<br />

the collapse of the “crown pillar” into a large air void when caving propagated into a<br />

weak, leached zone led to the death of four men in late 1999. Although the details of<br />

this occurrence are not entirely relevant to the current discussion of caving mechanics,<br />

they will be outlined here for completeness <strong>and</strong> their educational value. Following a<br />

Coronial Inquest, Hebblewhite (2003) summarised the circumstances leading to the<br />

Northparkes accident in the following way:<br />

“The initial establishment of the block caving operation had been carried out using<br />

a double undercut, at two sub-levels, 18 m <strong>and</strong> 30 m above the extraction level,<br />

respectively.<br />

Caving of the ore above the undercut commenced during the undercut development<br />

process.<br />

For a number of reasons – possibly a combination of the nature of the rock mass <strong>and</strong><br />

the process of undercut development <strong>and</strong> caving – the initial cave back developed<br />

a curved or arched shape very early in the operation (prior to the full extent or<br />

horizontal footprint of the cave being established).<br />

Over a period of years, problems were encountered with delayed or restricted<br />

caving.<br />

Mine management implemented a number of significant caving propagation initiatives,<br />

including blasting <strong>and</strong> several hydraulic fracturing campaigns, with varying<br />

success.<br />

In the weeks leading up to 24 November 1999, there were signs of increasing<br />

caving activity as a result of the hydraulic fracturing campaign that contract drillers<br />

were engaged in – working from an original exploration drive <strong>and</strong> cross cuts/drill<br />

cuddies at One Level, an access point that intersected the orebody, approximately<br />

halfway up the height of Lift 1.<br />

Coincident with this increased caving activity was a vertical change in geology,<br />

leading to different rock mass characteristics due to a gypsum-leached zone. At<br />

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