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Rock Mechanics.pdf - Mining and Blasting

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Figure 16.21 Longitudinal section,<br />

looking north, through the centre of a<br />

3DEC model of a hangingwall wedge,<br />

Kidd Mine, Ontario, Canada (after<br />

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

MINING-INDUCED SURFACE SUBSIDENCE<br />

plane stain, non-linear (tension cut-off, ubiquitous joint) FLAC analyses have been<br />

used by Singh et al. (1993), Lupo (1999) <strong>and</strong> Henry <strong>and</strong> Dahnér-Lindqvist (2000). At<br />

the Kiirunavaara Mine, Sweden, deep-seated footwall fracturing <strong>and</strong> displacement<br />

have been recorded <strong>and</strong> studied using FLAC modelling. Board et al. (2000) <strong>and</strong><br />

Ran et al. (2002) used FLAC <strong>and</strong> distinct element (3DEC) modelling to study a<br />

large hangingwall wedge failure <strong>and</strong> the remobilisation of this failure with associated<br />

displacements on footwall structures at the Kidd Mine, Ontario, Canada. The initial<br />

failure was estimated to involve some 30 million tonnes of rock. As illustrated by<br />

the longitudinal section through the 3DEC model shown in Figure 16.21, the wedge<br />

extended from surface to a depth of about 610 m. Its boundaries were defined by a<br />

fault <strong>and</strong> a shear zone having continuous lengths in excess of 1070 m, by deep tension<br />

cracks on the eastern face, by shearing through the host rock mass at its base, <strong>and</strong> by<br />

mined <strong>and</strong> filled stopes on its western extremity.<br />

16.5 Continuous subsidence due to the mining of tabular orebodies<br />

16.5.1 Concepts <strong>and</strong> definitions<br />

A continuous subsidence trough is produced at the surface when thin, flat-dipping,<br />

tabular orebodies are mined by longwall methods which give 100% extraction over<br />

relatively large panels. In order for the subsidence to be continuous rather than discontinuous,<br />

the relation of the depth of mining <strong>and</strong> the caving-induced stresses to the<br />

strength properties of the rock overlying the orebody must be such that fracture <strong>and</strong><br />

discontinuous movement of the rock are restricted to the immediate vicinity of the<br />

orebody. This occurs in most longwall coal mining operations <strong>and</strong> in metalliferous<br />

longwall mining at depth as, for example, in the South African goldfields. It may<br />

also result from the mining of other minerals such as evaporites overlain by relatively<br />

weak sedimentary rocks.<br />

Figure 16.22 shows a vertical section through the workings in a typical case. Superimposed<br />

on the diagram are the subsidence <strong>and</strong> surface slope profiles for three<br />

506

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