Room

& Pillar Mining

Applicability: . Ore Strength: Week to Hard
•  Host Rock : Moderate to strong
•  Deposit Shape: Tabular
•  Deposit dip: low<300
•  Deposit Size: Large areal extent
•  Ore Grade: Moderate
•  Ore Uniformity: Fairly uniform in thickness
•  Depth: Shallow to moderate <900m
Characteristics:
ü  It is the most common unsupported method, designed and used
primarily for mining flat-lying ore deposits or gently dipping bedded
ore deposits of limited thickness (like coal, trona, limestone, and salt).
ü  ore body up to 6 meter thickness can be extracted in a single pass.
ü  Room and pillar methods are well adapted to mechanization, and are
used in tabular ore bodies such as potash, phosphate, salt, oil shale,
and bedded uranium ores.
ü  Pillars are left in place in a regular pattern while the rooms are mined
out area.
ü  Support of the roof is provided by natural pillars of the mineral that
are left standing in a systematic pattern.
ü  The mining cavities are kept open and rests on the strength of
remnant pillars of the ore body that are left un-mined.
ü  Inclination of the ore body should not exceed 300 with horizontal.
ü  Driving several openings at one time increases production and
efficiency by providing multiple working places.
ü  Room-and-pillar mining method has a low recovery percentage (a
large percentage of ore remains in place underground).
ü  If only development is done, it prevents surface subsidence because
pillars so formed support the roof but it is at the cost of percentage
recovery.
ü  But when the pillars are also extracted starting starting from the
farthest point from the stope access, allowing the roof to collapse and
fill in the stope i.e. by caving method. This allows for greater recovery
as less ore is left behind in pillars.
Cycle of operations/Unit Operations:
Conventional Mining: Like Room-and-pillar mining of coal with
conventional equipment includes cutting operation to improve coal
breakage after blasting.
The production cycle then becomes
Production cycle = Drilling + Blasting + Loading + Hauling.
Equipment deployed: Drilling : : Jumbo Drill
Blasting: : ANFO Loader
Loading & Hauling : : Load Haul Dumper
Transport : : Conveyor, mine car
Beneficiation: Milling/Beneficiation Plant
Roof control, ventilation and clean up are the auxiliary operations.
Room and Pillar Mining
 Room and Pillar mining:
Room & Pillar Mining Of Inclined Orebody With Irregular Pillar Size:
 Stope & Pillar Or Room & Pillar Mining In Thick Deposits
of thick seams –“benching” Underground mining: room-and-pillar mining o

Figure shows Room and Pillar is designed for mining flat, bedded
deposits of limited thickness.

Different approaches allow either the top or

bottom part of the seam to be mined out first.
Stope & Pillar Mining:
This is similar to room & pillar mining but with following difference:
1. The pillars are irregularly shaped and sized and either
randomly located in low grade ore
2. The mineral deposit is less than 6m thickness, the openings
are higher than these are wide, or a benching or slabbing
technique may be utilized
3. Hard rock mineral other than coal is exploited by this
technique.
Stoping Methodology :
•  The ore is excavated in horizontal slices, normally starting
from the bottom of the stope and advancing upwards.
•  Part of the broken ore is left to support the stope walls.
•  Smaller ore bodies can be mined with a single stope.
•  Larger ore bodies are divided into separate stopes.
•  Pillars can be recovered upon completion of the regular
mining
 SHRINKAGE STOPING:
It is vertical stoping method in which the ore is mined in horizontal
slices from bottom to top and remains in the stope as temporary
support to the walls and to provide a vertical platform for the
miners.
Application :
–  stable ore and host rocks
–  steply dipping deposit(60 to 90 degrees)
–  regular boundaries of ore body with shape tabular to
lenticular
–  ore thickness (optimum 5 m)
–  broken ore must not re-cement with time
Advantages :
–  selective blasting in higher grade is possible
–  low cost mining
Disadvantages :
-  mucking is not selective
–  low stope output
–  low personnel productivity
–  loss in pillars
–  difficulty in mechanization
Development Works:
The development works for shrinkage stoping consists of:-
•  Haulage drift along the bottom of the stope
•  Crosscuts into the ore underneath the stope
•  Finger raises and cones from the crosscuts to the undercuts
•  An undercut or complete bottom slice of the stope at a level of
5-10m above the haulage drift
•  Raise from haulage level passing through the undercut up to the
main level above, to provide access and ventilation to the stope.
Methodology:
•  The ore is excavated in horizontal slices, starting from the
bottom of the stope and advancing upwards.
•  Part of the broken ore left is serving as a working platform
while mining the ore above & to support the stope walls.
•  The blasted ore increases its occupied volume by about 70%.
Therefore, 30 to 40% of the ore must be drawn off continuously
to keep a suitable working distance between the back and the
top of the broken ore.
•  When the stoping has advanced to the upper limit of the
planned stope drilling and blasting is discontinued, and the
remaining 60 to 70% of the ore can be recovered.
•  Smaller ore bodies can be mined with a single stope.
•  Larger ore bodies are divided into separate stopes.
•  Pillars can be recovered upon completion of the regular mining.
SHRINKAGE STOPING:
SHRINKAGE STOPING:
FIG.3 (a) SHRINKAGE STOPE
SHRINKAGE STOPING
 SHRINKAGE STOPING

1 - haulage drift ; 2 - transport drift ; 3 - manway and ventilation rise ; 4 - doghole ; 5 - pillar ;
6 - crosscut ; 7 - ore ; 8 - drillholes ; 9 - brocken ore .
 CUT & FILL METHOD OF STOPING:
Application:
1. Ore strength: Moderately weak to strong.
2. Rock strength: weak to fairly weak.
3. Deposit shape: tabular; can be irregular, discontinuous, scattered
mineralization
4. Deposit dip: >450
5. Deposit size: 2 to 30m.
6. Depth: <4000 to 8000 ft or 1.2 to 2.4 km.
7. Ore grade: Fairly high.
8. Ore uniformity: moderate, variable
9. It is one of the more popular methods used for vein deposits and
has recently grown in use.
10. It is an expensive but selective mining method, with low ore loss
and dilution.
Development Work for Stope Preparation
•  Access from the main level to the stope by a drift or cross-cut(at
both the levels)
•  Connecting the two levels by end raises and service raises at a
proper interval for mine services such as ventilation, electric
cable, conveyance of fill material.
•  Development for the extraction layout, this includes, driving
extraction drive(level drive), construction of chutes for ore
passes, undercutting above the sill for stoping operation to strat
with or driving stope drive
•  The ore and man passes are built simultaneously using timber or
tubing as the stope advances upward.
•  To have an access to mobile equipments such as drill jumbos,
LHDs, mine truck(MT) etc. ramp sometimes becomes necessary,
Methodology:
It is most common of supporting mining method and in practice
since long.
•  Ore is extracted in horizontal or inclined slices starting from the
bottom of a stope and advancing upwards.
•  After excavating the ore the corresponding volume is filled with
variety of fill types e.g. waste, tailing, cemented tailings, other
suitable material
•  The fill serves supports to both stope wall as well provide a
working platform for equipment & manpower when the next
slice is mined.
•  Another variant is Drift and Fill which is similar to cut and fill,
except it is used in ore zones which are wider than the method of
drifting will allow to be mined. In this case the first drift is
developed in the ore, and is backfilled using consolidated fill. The
second drift is driven adjacent to the first drift. This carries on
until the ore zone is mined out to its full width, at which time the
second cut is started atop of the first cut.
Advantages :
•  method is selective
•  low dilution and minimum losses
•  flexibility
Disadvantages :
•  low stope output
•  low personnel productivity
•  high costs
Limitations:
•  Mining cost: relative cost 60%
•  Cost of back filling: up to 50% of total mining cost
•  Operational skill: required skilled labour and operations more
labour intensive
•  Working atmosphere: at depth wet filling may create
impediment in movement of tyre mounted equipment
•  humidity problems underground

 Cut and Fill stoping
100 m

Upper level

Crown pillar

Ore body

Roof bolt

65 m

Rib pillar
4.5 to 5 m
Muck pile

Ore Transfer chute

Sand Fill
Ladder way

Sill pillar

Lower level
Face Drilling in Cut & Fill Stope
 Ring
Drilling
in Cut &
Fill
Stope
 CUT & FILL METHOD OF STOPING

1 - haulage drift ; 2 - transport drift ; 3 - raise for fill and ventilation ; 4 - ore passe ;
5 - manway rise ; 6 - crosscut ; 7, 8 - pillars ; 9 - ore ; 10 - broken ore ; 11 - backfill .
Directional Terms;

Breast: Advancing in a near-horizontal
direction: also the working face of an
opening *

lnby: Toward the working face. away
from the mine entrance

Outby: Away from the working face_
toward the entrance

Overhand: Advancing in an upward
direction*

Underhand: Advancing in a downward
direction*

* Customarily used to modify stoping

or mining
 Cut & Fill
Mining
where
tailing,
cemented
tailing can
be used
instead of
sand
 SUBLEVEL STOPING METHOD
Applications: Normally, sublevel stoping is used in ore bodies having following
characteristics.
1.  The ore body must have a steep dip, i.e., the inclination of the footwall
must exceed the angle of repose.
2.  The surrounding rock must provide a strong hanging wall and a strong
footwall.
3.  The ore body must be competent.
4.  The boundaries of the ore body must be regular
Preparatory Development work prior to stoping:
•  Access to the stope location is made by making the drivages and/or
cross cuts from main(haulage) levels.
•  These levels are connected by the service raises. On completion of
theses service raises, sub-levels are driven at different horizons of
the size sufficient to accommodate the drill machines either in
footwall or in h/w contact of orebody.
•  Driving the haulage drift, a trough drive, and connecting these two
drives at suitable spaced cross cuts or draw points

 •  Rib pillars left between the two stopes
•  Construction of a slot raise at the hanging wall and widening it from h/w
to f/w or longitudinally to open the way of stoping. It is necessary for
increased volume of blasted rock and to provide free face.
•  crown pillars to support the upper levels stopes
•  Raises for access to and development of sublevels
•  Driving of haulage drift in footwall and loading cross-cut
•  Driving of sublevels
•  Draw points are usually 9m apart from center to centre
Methodology:
It is a vertical mining method in which large open stope is created within the vein,
this open stope is not meant to be occupied by miners, therefore all work of
drilling and blasting must be performed from sublevel within the ore block.
•  The ore body is divided vertically by driving crosscuts and haulage levels
every 150 to 400ft (45 to 120m).
•  A collection system is constructed, during which time the stope block is
all or partially undercut.
•  Sublevels are driven through the proposed stope block every 30 to 180ft
(10 to 55m).
SUBLEVEL STOPING
 SUBLEVEL STOPING

 Unit operations
Drilling + blasting + loading + haulage + auxiliary operation
Drilling: Development: use of jacklegs, stopers, and jumbo drills for
drivage,
Stoping: Drifter/Jumbo drills mounted fan and ring drilling rigs DTH,
Length of the holes varies depending on the shape of the ore and
distance between sublevels but does not normally exceed 25m.
Blasting: ANFO, Slurries; charging by cartridge or bulk by pneumatic
loader or pump, firing electrically or by detonating fuse;
Secondary breakage : impact hammer, drill and blast
Loading: Gravity flow to draw points; LHD, front end loader, Shovel
loader, gravity an chute (rare)
Haulage: LHD, truck, rail, belt conveyor (rare)
The draw point system and undercut often simplified as a drilling drift
with cross-cuts to haulage drift.
Advantages:
–  Productivity: moderate to high, no labour intensive, very good scope for
mechanization
–  Range of OMS: 15 to 30 t/shift/man
–  Cost: moderate: 40% relative cost
–  Production rate: moderate to high
–  Dilution : up to 20%
–  Safety: little exposure to unsafe condition
–  Low breakage cost
–  Fair recovery (75%), fair dilution (20%)
Disadvantages:
1. Fairly expensive, slow and complicated development, high development
cost.
2. Inflexible and non selective
3. Requires special skill for Long hole drilling
4.Large blast may cause excessive vibration, air blast and structural damage.
 Vertical Crater Retreat Mining
•  Vertical Crater Retreat (VCR) is a method originally developed by
the Canadian company INCO.
•  Today VCR is an established method used in mines all over the
world
•  It is based on crater blasting technique, powerful explosive charges
are placed in large diameter holes and fired
•  The concentrated spherical charge is positioned at a specified
distance from the upper level underneath and the detonation
creates crater- shaped openings in the rock.
•  When several holes are detonated at same levels, a horizontal slice
is blasted.
•  The ore is excavated in such horizontal slices, starting from the
stope bottom and advancing upwards.
•  The ore produced by crater blasting falls down in the open space
underneath , where part of it will remain during the production.
Applicability:
–  Steeply dipping, preferably 55-90o
–  Thick ore body, stable hanging wall and footwall ( 6 to 30m)
–  Strong ore which separates readily from wall
–  Regular dip and ore boundaries
–  Moderate ore grade
–  Moderate depth (<1km)
Development
–  Haulage drift along the orebody at the drawpoint level
–  Drawpoint loading arrangement underneath the stope
–  Undercut of the stope
–  Overcut as access for drilling and charging


Production
•  Holes are drilled downward, breaking through into the undercut,
vertical holes are preferred wherever possible.
•  Hole diameter vary from 140 to 165mm. The most common hole
dia is 165mm allowing holes to be spaced 4.0m × 4.0m.
•  Holes are charged from the overcut using powerful spherical
charges contained in a short section along the blast hole, the crater
charges are placed at specified distance to the free surface
underneath.
•  All work is done from the overcut and records are required to keep
track of blasting progress in each hole.
•  First the hole depth is measured, then the hole blocked at proper
height. Explosive charge are lowered, stemming of sand and water
placed on the top of the charge.
•  Repeating this loading and blasting procedure, mining of the stope
or pillar retreats in the form of horizontal slices in a vertical upward
direction until the top sill is blasted.
 Executive Development Programme on Mining Fundamentals for Infosys

VERTICAL CRATER RETREAT STOPING

VERTICAL CRATER RETREAT STOPING
mining is applicable in conditions similar to those in which sublevel open stoping is used. VCR is
ically simpler with ITH drilling compared to top hammer drilling. ITH holes are straight, and
VERTICAL CRATER RETREAT STOPING
deviations are minimal. The charging of the blastholes is complex, and techniques must be
red by the charging team. The powerful VCR charges involve higher risks for damaging the

unding rock than sublevel open stoping.
 due to
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 Sublevel Caving
Applicability:
1.  Ore strength: strong (requires sufficient competence to
withstand without excessive supports against blasting).
2.  Rock strength: weak to fairly strong, should be fractured,
jointed & cavable.
3.  Deposit shape: tabular or massive.
4.  Deposit dip: >600 or vertical,
5.  Depth:<4000ft or 1.2 km
6.  Ore grade: Low to Moderate.
7.  Ore uniformity: Moderate.
Sublevel caving
Development:
•  The ore is extracted via sublevels developed in the ore body at
regular intervals.
•  Each sublevel features a systematic layout with parallel drifts
along or across the ore body.
•  A ramp is needed to connect different sublevels and communicate
with the main transport routes.
•  Ore passes are also required at strategic locations along the
sublevels to allow LHDs to dump ore to be collected and
transported to the haulage level below.
•  In a wide ore body, the sublevel drifts start from the footwall drift
and are driven until they reach the hanging wall. This is referred to
as transverse sublevel caving.
•  In ore bodies of lesser width, longitudinal sublevel caving is used.
In this variant, drifts branch off in both directions from a center
crosscut.
 Caving requires a rock mass where both the ore body and the host
rock fracture under controlled conditions. As final extraction/
stoping proceeds, ore is mined out and when the void so created is
not backfilled, the hanging wall keeps caving into the voids.
Continued mining results in subsidence of the surface, and
subsidence/sinkholes may appear. Continuous caving is important
to avoid creation of cavities inside the rock where a sudden collapse
could be harmful to mine installations.
Sequence of Mining:
•  The ore section above the drift is drilled in a fan-shaped pattern
with longhole drills. Drilling can be done independently of other
procedures, often well ahead of charging. Thus, drilling,
charging, and blasting longholes can be timed to suit the mine's
production schedules. Blasting on each sublevel starts at the
hanging wall and mining retreats toward the footwall.
•  The cave line should follow an approximately straight front, and
hence adjacent drifts should be mined at a similar pace.
•  A section through the stope shows the upper sublevels are one
step ahead of the sublevels underneath.
•  Blasting the longholes in a fan pattern breaks the ore in the slice. Most
of the blasted ore remains in place while some falls down into the drift
opening.
•  Mucking out with LHDs creates a cave pattern of ore and waste from
above. Loading continues until the operator decides there is too much
dilution, stopes mucking moves to another heading.
•  Ore handling involves mucking out the blasted material at the front,
transporting it on the sublevels, and dumping the ore into ore passes.
•  When one face is mucked clean, the LHD is moved to a nearby drift
heading and mucking continues.
•  Sublevel caving is repetitive both in layout and working procedures.
Development drifting, production drilling, charging, blasting, and
mucking are all carried out separately. Work takes place at different
levels, allowing each procedure to be carried out continuously without
disturbing the others. There is always a place for the machine to work.
•  Dilution and ore losses are drawbacks for sublevel caving hence needs
continuous monitoring. Dilution varies between 15% and 40%, and ore
losses can be from 15% to 25%, depending on local conditions
Subsidence on surface due to Sublevel Caving:
 BLOCK CAVING
It is a lowest cost, mass mining method in which masses, panels
or blocks of ore are undercut to induce caving mostly due to
gravity, permitting the broken ore to be drawn off below. The
hanging wall then caves breaks into the void created by drawing the
ore.
Characteristics:
•  Lowest Cost of Mining
•  Mass Mining Technology with mechanization
•  Undercut to trigger caving: A grid of tunnels is driven by
blasting under the ore body as undercuts,
•  Ideally the rock will break under its own weight, then ore is
taken from draw points.
•  Unique conditions limit Block Caving method to particular
types of mineral deposits.
Globally, Block Caving is deployed for extracting iron ore, low grade
copper, molybdenum deposits and diamond bearing kimberlite
pipes.
Applicability of Block Caving:
1. Ore strength: weak to moderate or fairly strong.
2. Rock strength: weak to moderate.
3. Deposit shape: massive to thick tabular deposit.
4. Deposit dip: >600 or vertical.
5. Depth: >600m to <1200m.
7. Ore grade: low.
8. Ore uniformity: uniform and homogeneous
Development in Block Caving:
•  Before conventional gravity flow is applied an undercut or a number
of undercuts is created beneath the ore block and long hole drilling &
blasting is carried out for facilitating caving of the ores initially,
•  Drawbells are driven beneath the undercut that gather the ore into
finger raises,
•  Drivage of finger raises that collect ore from draw bells to the grizzlies
•  Drivage of another set of finger raises at lower level that channelize
the ore from grizzzlies to ore chutes/orepass for loading of rake
loading
Development in Block Caving.. Contd….

•  The finger raises are arranged like branches of a tree,

gathering ore from a large area at the undercut level and
further channeling broken ore to ore chutes at the haulage
level
•  Drivage of crushing level for installation of crusher/picking
hammer before feeding to haulage level for rake loading
•  Drivage of haulage level
•  Drifts & other openings underneath the block are subject to
high stress hence needs to be of minimal cross section
•  Extensive roof bolting and/or concrete lining may be necessary
to secure stability of mine drifts & drawpoint openings
Block Caving with finger raises, grizzlies & Chute
loading
Methodology:
•  After completion of the undercut, the rock mass above begins to
fracture. The blocks are gathered by drawbells and funneled down
through finger raises. The intention is to maintain a steady flow from
each block. Many a times it is often necessary to assist rock mass
fracturing by longhole drilling and blasting in widely spaced
patterns.
•  Originally, block-caving techniques relied 100% on gravity flow to
deliver ore from the cave into rail cars. The ore was funneled
through a system of finger raises and ore passes, ending at trough
chutes at the main haulage level. As chute loading requires
controlled fragmentation, the rock had to pass through a grizzly
before it entered the ore pass.
•  The grizzly-man with a sledgehammer used to be a bottleneck in
old-style block-caving mines who is subjected to risk also. Now it is
common to use hydraulic hammers for breaking the boulders.
•  Boulders that must be broken by drilling and blasting frequently
interrupt the flow. Large blocks cause hang-ups in the cave that are
difficult and dangerous to tackle.
Methodology Contd…..
•  Today, block-caving mines have adapted trackless mining in
which LHDs are used to handle the cave in the drawpoints. The
LHDs are able to handle large rocks while oversized boulders
are blasted in the drawpoints.
•  As a consequence, ventilation must be strengthened at the
time of development preparations so as to clear the diesel
exhaust at the production stage/final extraction.

Drawbacks:
•  The extensive development
•  High stress in developments below ore block
•  Support requirement is high
•  High time lag before production starts
•  The behavior of the rock mass and conditions for caving are
sometimes extremely difficult so as to predict timely caving
Block Caving with drawpoint loading with LHDs: