MECHANISED BREAST STOPING LAY OUT

INTRODUCTION

After careful deliberation and consideration, the project focuses on two breast stoping layouts.
Lay-out A was constructed with a 3-decline system constructed along the dip and the other
layout B has a decline system which is at angle of 45 degrees to the true dip direction.

It is recognised that a gently-dipping narrow vein is hard to be exploited due to the difficulties in
ore drawing and operating large mining equipment in the restricted stoping space. Therefore,
considerations are required to adopt an efficient mining method that is capable of dealing with
the irregular boundary of this kind of orebody, resulting in a high recovery rate while minimising
the ore dilution and the preparations prior to stoping. (F Gao, 2015)

The ore body will be accessed using a 1:8 decline gradient (12%), the decline system will be
used for ventilation and transportation of man and materials. The stopes are to be arranged at an
angle of 40 degrees to the dip direction in apparent dip lay out (R.G.B. PICKERING, 2008). This
layout enhanced the operating ability of load-haul-dump (LHD) and other trackless equipment.

MACHINERY

The haulage widths and sub-drive width was determined using the assumption of maximum
machine width of 3.7m. The haulage width was set at 4m to allow for easy access of LHDs
during ore handling.
LAYOUT A

Figure 1

Layout A shows a plan view of a mechanised breast stoping method to allow trackless equipment
to operate efficiently along strike.

The ore body from the Selous dips at an average maximum angle of 23 degrees in the East to
West direction. This high dip is beyond the reach of trackless equipment hence a conveyor can
be used in the decline. In order to solve this problem, the initial proposal is in the form of a large
panel, small subsection and apparent dip layout (F Gao, 2015).

STOPE PARAMETERS

Figure 1 shows a plan view of the proposed breast stoping layout for the Selous concession. This
layout creates favourable conditions for ore removal using an LHD. Generally, the room will be
of length 80 m along strike and width 40m along the dip. The height of the room will be equal to
the thickness of the orebody (2,4m) for maximum ore extraction. There are 2 barrier pillars of
5m width and 4m spacing between two rooms. Using this layout, the rooms will be divided into
stopes per room separated by 4m width sub-drives at 40 degrees to the dip direction as shown in
figure 1. The average stope width will be 20m. The maximum tramming distance for LHDs to
the conveyor is below the 120m maximum economic tramming distance.
SEQUENCE OF MINING

Mining is done along the strike with advanced strike gully being developed first before mining
commences and development is done along the dip.

LAYOUT B

Figure 2

Layout B is an apparent dip lay out oriented at an angle of 45 degrees. Development precedes
stoping thereby creating predeveloped stopes that will be ready for extraction. This allows or
gives room for quick decision making since major geological anomalies will be understood prior
to the stoping operations. Maximum stope breadth will be 13m mined at an apparent dip.
Ventilation Hollings of 5m will be blasted in the strike pillar line and decrease tramming routes
for LP equipment enabling quick access to the panels.

DEVELOPMENT

Breast stoping mine development is done ahead of the stoping in order to create independent
development and stoping phases as well as to provide additional stoping face length. Proposed
advanced strike drives (ASD) are developed at 15 m centers creating a grid of 8 advanced strike
gullies (ASG) per section. All the 8 ASDs are intersected by a series of raise lines developed at
an angle of 45 degrees to the ASD. These raises are spaced at 100 m creating blocks of 13m by
100 m for stoping. Each section has a belt drive developed where a conveyor belt is installed
keeping LHD tramming distances within acceptable limits. Raise lines and ASDs are developed
to an average height of 2.4 m and a width of 4 m to allow for clearance between moving
machinery and services. Each belt drive is developed at an average height of 2.4 m and width of
5.0 m for the installation of the conveyor belt. Tipping points are raised to 4m for proper ore
handling.

EQUIPMENT

Low profile equipment used in other mechanized room and pillar mining method will be used.
Each section will be having one single boom roof bolter to drill and install 1.6 or 1.8 resin roof
bolts spaced at 1m along dip by 1.5m along strike. These parameters will depend upon the
geotechnical stability of the ground and are subject to change upon inspections. Additional
support in form of timber packs may be used.

A LP LHD for example Sandvik LH 208L will be used for the cleaning of all development ends.
It will also load ore material extracted from stopes into to the tipping points. Average tramming
distances for these LHDs will be 104m per section in order to increase life of trucks, increase tire
hours thereby reducing the overall operating costs of the machinery.