UNDERGROUND MINERAL AND COAL MINING

METHODS
Dr. Stefano Munir, M.E.

JURUSAN TEKNIK PERTAMBANGAN - UNISBA, BANDUNG, MARET 2015

 Early Works May 2011

Installing Portal Set

Jumbo Chip Advance first 40m

Development

Maintenance W/Shop and Laydown Yard

5
 Dilution calculation

For > 15 - 20 :

W opening = L sin a + h cos a + 2a

a

L
h For < 15 - 20 :

W opening = L sin a + h cos a + a

a

Underground Mining is usually classified in three categories of methods : Unsupported,
Supported, and Caving
 Thickness , m : Ore bodies Coal seams
0 0.7 Sgt tipis/narrow below 0,5 Sgt tipis
0.7 2 Tipis/thin 0.5 1,3 Tipis
2 5 Sdg Tebal 1,3 3,5 Sdg/moderate
5 15/20 Tebal/thick over 3,5 Tebal
15/20 over Sgt tebal/wide

Dip angle, : Ore bodies Coal seams

0 Datar (horizontal) 0 Datar
0 - 3 Agak datar 0 25 Rata (flat)
3 30 Sedikit miring 25 45 Miring
30 45 Miring/inclined
45 90 Curam/steep 45 90 Curam
Calculation of dilution due to overbreak during mining

Maximum mining efficiency can be defined as 0% dilution at

100% extraction of the mineral being mined.

Dilution is the extracted tonnage of material below the economic

cutoff grade for the mine
Drill pattern, Garpenberg Mine, a lead-zinc mine in central Sweden

30
Load Haul Dump (LHD)
Multiple purpose diesel machine used for material removal and lifting
and carrying supplies around the mine.
Roof bolters:Installing rock bolts in the roof.
Supported Methods:
Those methods that require some type of backfill to provide
substantial amounts of artifitial supports to maintain stability in the
exploitation openings of mine.
when the production opening will not remain standing during their
life and when major caving and subsidence cannot be tolerated.
There are three methods in this class:
1) Cut and fill stoping.
2) Stull stoping.
3) Square set stoping.
1)Cut and fill stoping: The only method of supported class in common
use today, cut-and-fill stoping, normally used in an overhand
fashion.the ore is extracted in horizontal slices and replaced with backfill
material.
The fill material varies,depending on the support required,and
the material available.
Cutandfill mining removes ore in horizontal slices, starting from a
bottom undercut and advancing upward. Ore is drilled, blasted and
removed from the stope. When a stope is mined out, the void is
backfilled with a slurry of tailings which is allowed to drain to form a
sufficiently solid surface. Cement may be added to form paste backfill.
The fill serves both to support the stope walls and provide a working
platform for equipment when the next slice is mined.
There are two types of cut and fill mining overhand and underhand. In
overhand cut and fill, the ore lies underneath the working area and the
roof is backfill. In underhand cut and fill, it is the opposite, the ore
overlies the working area and the machines work on backfill.
Cutandfill mining is applied to steeply dipping orebodies in stable rock
masses. It is a selective mining method and is preferred for orebodies
with irregular shape and scattered mineralization. Because the method
involves moving fill material as well as a significant amount of drilling
and blasting, it is relatively expensive and therefore is done only in high
grade mineralization where there is a need to be selective and avoid
mining of waste or low grade ore.
 Cut-and-fill stoping

1 - haulage drift ; 2 - transport drift ; 3 - rise for fill and ventilation ; 4 - ore passe ; 5 - manway rise ; 6 - crosscut ; 7,
8 - pillars ; 9 - ore ; 10 - broken ore ; 11 - backfill .
39
 drilling

loading

filling

competent rock medium rock weak rock

 jumbo

ore

backfill LHD
Conditions:
1.Ore strength: Moderately weak to strong.
2.Rock strength: weak to fairly weak.
3.Deposit shape: tabular; can be irregular,discontinuous.
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

Cycle of operations:
Drilling+Blasting+Loading+Haulage.
Characteristics of cut-and-fill stoping

Advantages :
method is selective
low dilution and losses
flexibility

Disadvantages :
low stope output and personnel
productivity
high costs

Application :
competent ore
weak host rocks
high ore value
deposit can be irregular
(2)Stull stoping: Stull stoping is infrequently used and relatively
unimportant today; as it accounts for less than 1% of underground mine
production.
Timbers are placed between the foot wall and hanging walls, which
constitute the only artificial support provided during the excavation of a
stope.
Conditions:
1.Ore strength: Fairly strong to strong.
2.Rock strength: moderate to fairly weak.
3.Deposit shape: Approximately tabular; can be irregular.
4.Deposit dip: works best at <450
5.Deposit size: relatively thin(12ft or 3.6m)
6.Depth: <3500 ft or 1.1km.
7.Ore grade:Fairly high to high
8.Ore uniformity: moderate.

Cycle of operations:
Drilling+Blasting+Loading+Haulage
 Each timber set consists of a post, cap and girt.
Conditions:
1.Ore strength: Weak to very weak.
2.Rock strength: Weak to very weak.
3.Deposit shape: Angular to irregular.
4.Deposit dip: Any, preferably >450 so that gravity flow can be used.
5.Depth: Deep(upto8500ft or 2.6km).
7.Ore grade: High
8.Ore uniformity: Variable.

Cycle of operations:
Drilling+Blasting+Loading+Haulage
In square set stoping the most essential auxiliary operations are,
handling, standing timber and filling with waste.
Ventilation is also vital.
Application :
deposit of 30 to 60 dip and
of 1 to 3 m thickness
weak ore and walls
high value of ore

Advantages :
selectivity
low loss and dilution

Disadvantages :
stope production and personnel
productivity are low
because of important
wood consumption
costs are high
 Application of different mining methods in
Stables steeply dipping narrow vein deposits

Shrinkage
Cut-and-fill

Sublevel stoping
Ore stability

Continuous bench backfilling

Instables

Undercut-and-partiaml
Undercut-and-full filling
filling
Instable Stable
Walls Stability
 Application of different mining methods in
High ore value massive vein deposits

Undercut-and-fill
Ore value

Cut-and-fill

Large open stoping

with cemented fill

Zone de foudroyage
Foration

Sublevel caving
Low ore value

soutirage grizzly

roulage

Block caving Large open stoping

with lost pillars
Low ore stability High ore stability
Ore stability
 Unsupported Methods:
The unsupported class consists of the methods in which the rock is
essentially self supporting and for which no major artificial
support(artificially placed pillars or fill)is necessary to carry the load
of overlying rock
The use of roof bolts or supports of timber or steel, provided that
such supports doesn't alter the load-carrying capacity of the natural
rock. The load is too high but the geological material can sustain the
load.
Following are considered as unsupported methods;
(1)Room-and-pillar mining.
(2) Stope-and-pillar mining.
(3)Shrinkage stoping.
(4)Sublevel stoping.
 (1)Room-and-pillar mining method:
Room-and-pillar mining is very old method applied to horizontal or nearly
horizontal deposits that has been adopted and refined over the years. The
method is used in both coal and non coal mining.
In room-and-pillar mining openings are driven orthogonally and at regular
intervals in a mineral deposit ,forming rectangular and square pillars for
natural supports. The development openings(entries)and production
openings(rooms)closely resemble each other; both are driven parallel and
in multiple.
Pillar may be left un-extracted either permanently or they are extracted
while retreating.
Up to 6 meter thickness the ore body can be extracted in a single pass.
Inclination of the seam should not exceed 300 with horizontal.
Driving several openings at one time increases production and efficiency by
providing multiple working places.
In addition it provides for better ventilation and transportation routes at the
working faces.
Cycle of operations:
Conventional Mining: In Room-and-pillar mining of coal with conventional
equipments includes cutting operation to improve coal breakage during light blasting.
The production cycle then becomes
Production cycle= cut+drill+blast+load+haul.
Roof control, ventilation and clean up are the auxiliary operations.
Continuous Mining: Continuous mining is a method that has been practiced primarily
in coal since about1950.The method depends heavily upon ruggedness and reliability
of continuous miner. The continuous miner breaks and load the coal mechanically and
simultaneously eliminates the step of cutting, blasting and loading.

Production cycle= Mine+Haul.

 (2)Stop-And-Pillar Mining: It is the method in which openings are
driven horizontally in regular and random patterns to form pillars for
ground support. It is one of the large mining method accounting for
about 50% of U.S noncoal production.
The stope-and-pillar is same as Room-and pillar mining if it meets
following qualifications:
1.Pillars are irregularly shaped and sized and either randomly located
2.Deposit thickness is <20ft(6m) openings are higher than they wide.
3.The commodity being exploited is a mineral other than coal, although
some noncoal deposits are also mined by room-and-pillar method
but no coal deposit s are mined by the stop-and-pillar method.

Production cycle = Drill+blast+load+haul.

(3)Shrinkage Stoping: It is called 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.
Stope width 3 to 100ft (1-30m),length 150 t 300ft (45-90m) and height
from 200 to 300ft(60-90m).

Conditions:
1.Ore strength: strong.
2.Rock strength: Fairly strong .
3.Deposit shape: tabular, lanticular.
4.Deposit dip: 60 to 900 (ore flow)
5.Depth: <2500ft or 750m
7.Ore grade: fairly high.
8.Ore uniformity: uniform.
 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 .
 A-A B-B
B
A

broken ore

1 - haulage drift ; 2 - transport and ventilation drift ; 3 - doghole ; 4 - stop sill.

 prepared stop

level 144 fan

cap pillar of 5 m

Alimac rise
openings

mined out stop

stop at the
end of mining

stop in operation

thin pillar
tubing for ventilation pillars

haulage level 200 fan

 Shrinkage stoping

prepared stop

level 130
cap pillar

mined out stop

ore width
height

stop in operation
thin pillar

pillars 2.5 x 2 m

haulage level 200

Characteristics of shrinkage stoping

Advantages :
selective blasting
low costs

Disadvantages :
mucking is not selective
low stope output
low personnel productivity
loss in pillars
difficulty in mechanization

Application :
stable ore and host rocks
steeply dipping deposit
regular boundaries of ore body
ore thickness up to 5 m
broken ore must not re-cement with time
Vertical crater retreat schematic
65
Stoping is used for mining deposits with following characteristics:
Steep dip, the footwall inclination must exceed the angle of repose
Stable rock in both hanging wall and footwall
Both competent ore and host rock
Regular ore boundaries
Sublevel stoping recovers the ore from open stopes separated by access drifts each
connected to a ramp. The orebody is divided into sections about 100 m high and
further divided laterally into alternating stopes and pillars. A main haulage drive is
created in the footwall at the bottom, with cutouts for drawpoints connected to the
stopes above. The bottom is Vshaped to funnel the blasted material into the
drawpoints. Short blastholes are drilled from the access drifts in a ring configuration.
The ore in the stope is blasted, collected in the drawpoints, and hauled away. The
stopes are normally backfilled with consolidated mill tailings. This allows for recovery
of the pillars of unmined ore between the stopes, enabling a very high recovery of the
orebody.
Longhole stoping uses longer (~100 m) and larger diameter blastholes, thus requiring
less drilling than sublevel stoping. Greater drilling accuracy is required and nonplanar
irregularities in the orebody shape cannot be recovered. Development of the
infrastructure for both these stoping methods is timeconsuming, costly, and complex.
(4)Sublevel Stoping: 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.

Conditions:
1.Ore strength: Moderate to strong.
2.Rock strength: Fairly strong to strong.
3.Deposit shape: tabular or lanticular
4.Deposit dip: fairly steep.
5.Depth:shallow to deep(8000 ft or 2.4km)
7.Ore grade: moderate.
8.Ore uniformity: fairly uniform.
72
73
United Mine Workers
of America

Types of Underground Coal Mines

This drawing depicts the three types of underground mines--shaft mines, slope
mines and drift mines. The decision of what type of mine to construct depends
on the depth of the coal seam and the surrounding terrain.
Drift mines have hoizontal entries into the coal seam from a hillside. Slope
mines, which usually are not very deep, are inclined from the surface to the coal
seam. Shaft mines, generally the deepest mines, have vertical access to the
coal seam via elevators that carry workers and equipment into the mine.
Almost all underground mines are less than 1,000 feet deep, but some mines
This drawing depicts the room and pillar method of underground mining. Most
underground coal is mined by the room and pillar method, whereby rooms are cut into
the coal bed leaving a series of pillars, or columns of coal, to help support the mine roof
and control the flow of air. Generally, rooms are 20-30 feet wide and the pillars up to 100
feet wide. As mining advances, a grid-like pattern of rooms and pillars is formed.
Workers drive bolts of up to eight feet long in the roof of the rooms to keep the rock
above the coal seam from falling in. When mining advances to the end of a panel or the
property line, retreat mining begins. In retreat mining, the workers mine as much coal as
possible from the remaining pillars until the roof falls in. When retreat mining is
completed, the mined area is abandoned.
There are two types of room and pillar mining conventional mining and continuous
mining. Conventional mining is the oldest method. In conventional mining, the coal seam
is cut, drilled, blasted and then loaded into cars. Continuous mining is the most prevalent
form of underground mining. In continuous mining, a machine known as a continuous
miner cuts the coal from the mining face, obviating the need for drilling and blasting.
 RINCIAN SISTEM VENTILASI (ARAH ALIRAN UDARA YANG MENGALIR DALAM
ROADWAYS) PADA METODE PENAMBANGAN BATUBARA BAWAH TANAH

Details of face ventilation in room-and-pillar mining. Entries employ bidirectional flow

78
In sum-mary the efficient application of Room & Pillar mining mainly depends upon:
Good roof conditions - adequate Stand-Up time
Good floor conditions - free steer vehicles
Dip of the seam (max. 12, usually up to 8)
To a lesser degree, depth of the workings
Roadway width
Seam thickness.
(a). Bidirectional flow commonly employed in room-and-pillar mining of coal with conventional
mobile-loading equipment, (b). Unidirectional flow, particularly with continuous equipment.

(a).Panel penambangan longwall dan arah aliran (b). Skema sistem ventilasi (udara
81
udara. melewati roadways) pada retreating longwall.
This drawing depicts the longwall method of underground mining. Longwall mining
now accounts for about 31% of underground coal production. There are over 100
longwall operations in the United States, most of them in mines in Appalachia. In
longwall mining, a cutting head moves back and forth across a panel of coal about 800
feet in width and up to 7,000 feet in length. The cut coal falls onto a flexible conveyor
for removal. Longwall mining is done under hydraulic roof supports (shields) that are
advanced as the seam is cut. The roof in the mined out areas falls as the shields
advance.
Caving Methods:
Caving methods are those associated with induced, controlled, massive
caving of the ore body, the overlying rock, or both, essential to the
conduct of mining.
(1) Longwall mining:
Longwall mining is an exploitation method used in flat-lying, relatively
thin, tabular deposits, in which the long faces are established to extract
the mineral.
Established b/w head gate entry and tailgate entry.
The longwall face is kept open by a system of heavy duty, powered
yielding supports that form a cantilever or umbrella of protection over
the face.
As a cut or slice is taken along the length of the wall, the supports are
collapsed, advanced closer to the face and reengaged, allowing the roof
to cave behind,
The caved area is called gob.
Large scale exploitation(80%face can be exploited) and is considered as
on of the cheapest method.
3 (tiga) teknik penindasan atau
pengontrolan debu :
water spray/curtain
water infusion
dust filter/cyclone collectors

Basically, there are two factors influencing the desgn and layout of the longwall
method, broadly classified as fixed and variable factors. The former are the geological
conditions that exist naturally and cannot be changed, while the later are the mining
conditions which can be changed or modified by the mine design engineers. 85
Cycle of operations: same as room-and-pillar mining method using
continuous miner.
Mining(breakage and loading):shearer(normally a double drum
version),plow.
Haulage: armored chain-and-flight face conveyor, normal belt conveyor
utilized in the head gate entry set.
The success of the operations of longwall mining as one the the conventional
underground coal mining methods is highly dependent upon the mine design and
layout. This successful operation may be achieved if the geological and mining
conditions prevailing in the colliery area are considered thoroughly during the stage of
mine planning and design. To do this, the mining conditions chosen for the colliery
area have to suit its geology in terms of safety, efficiency (maximum
87
extraction/recovery) and economy (lowest cost/maximum profit).
1.2 Roof Support Technology
Shield support is available for seam heights from 0.6-6m with setting and yield loads
tailored to the operators requirements and the geological conditions. Most of these
shields are in a two-leg design today. Support capacity can now exceed 1,000 t, if
required. The original 1.5m shield width has grown to 1.75m. The advantages are
obvious. Fewer shields are required for the same face length, which reduces the total
number of shield units and, hence, the costs. Furthermore, longwall move times can
be shortened using fewer shields.
There are a variety of options available for improving longwall equipment and the various
components. Given that, it is the whole set of equipment that has to operate under what
may be very tough mining conditions and has to yield good operational and productivity
figures. Technical developments in the various components of a longwall involve:
Transport technology with armoured face conveyor (AFC);
Drive technology;
Roof support technology with electro-hydraulic shield supports;
Shearer technology; and
System of automation and electro-hydraulic controls.
Armoured Face Conveyor and Drive Technology Systems
The basic principle of the Armoured Face Conveyor (AFC) has remained virtually unchanged
since its inception. The AFC not only conveys coal, but also acts as a track for the mining
machine the shearer or the plow and serves as a reference rail for the shield supports.
Modern AFCs are up to 1,342 mm wide, with an installed carrying capacity of more than 5,000
metric tonnes per hour. Face conveyor systems in operation have horsepower installations of up
to 3,200 kW (each drive frame is capable of 2 x 800 kW) with high AFC chain speeds of up to 1.8
m/s
Dangerous problems, particularly subsidence, which is the collapse of land above a
mine.
90
Punch Longwall Mining
Figure opposite shows a general layout of punch longwall mining. The
aim of this method is to mine coal form the highwall of an open cut
operation, in which the stripping ratio is far outweighs the production
cost of coal mined.
The method consists of driving a set of headings in to the coal seam
from the highwall of an open cut operation. The two headings are
driven a predetermined distance (say 3 000 m) and are then connected
to form a panel. Longwall face equipment is subsequently installed
across the panel as shown in Figure 1. The coal is mined by retreating
back toward the highwall until a short distance from the entry. This
section of coal is left to act as a barrier pillar to protect the highwall.
Punch longwall mining is carried out using single entry gateroads as the
they are only used by one panel. The adjacent panels can be similarly
extracted with fresh entries being driven adjacent to the previous mined
out panel leaving a barrier pillar of suitable width to provide safe
retreating of the new panel as shown in Figure 2 opposite.
The extracted coal is transported out and piled at the ramp whereit is
There are a variety of options available for improving longwall equipment and the various
components. Given that, it is the whole set of equipment that has to operate under what
may be very tough mining conditions and has to yield good operational and productivity
figures. Technical developments in the various components of a longwall involve:
Transport technology with armoured face conveyor (AFC);
Drive technology;
Roof support technology with electro-hydraulic shield supports;
Shearer technology; and
System of automation and electro-hydraulic controls.
Armoured Face Conveyor and Drive Technology Systems
The basic principle of the Armoured Face Conveyor (AFC) has remained virtually unchanged
since its inception. The AFC not only conveys coal, but also acts as a track for the mining
machine the shearer or the plow and serves as a reference rail for the shield supports.
Modern AFCs are up to 1,342 mm wide, with an installed carrying capacity of more than 5,000
metric tonnes per hour. Face conveyor systems in operation have horsepower installations of up
to 3,200 kW (each drive frame is capable of 2 x 800 kW) with high AFC chain speeds of up to 1.8
m/s
Road Header
94
1.5 Continuous Miners (CM)
For roadway development in longwall mines and coal production in room-and-pillar operations,
continuous miners (CM) are in use. In the main coal mining countries the US, Australia and
South Africa - use of a CM as sole development machine is fairly widespread. Typically,
rectangular cross-sections of 10-15 m dimensions are driven. The smaller the number of CM
development sections required by a mine, the better the cost performance. Hence, the rate of
advance of a CM section is beginning to be the most important factor in speeding up mine
development. There has already been a considerable productivity increase during the past
decade. Today, CM advance rates vary widely, but a 100m per day linear gate-road advance on a
3-shift/d basis is standard throughout the industry, whereas main-road and other development
forms achieve only 20 to 25m per unit shift. 95
 Sublevel caving:
In sublelvel caving over all mining progress downward while the ore
b/w sublevel is broken overhand; the overlying waste rock (hangingwall
or capping)caves into the void created as the ore is drawn off. Sub level
caving is applicable to near-vertical deposits of metal and nonmetal. In
sublevel caving both the ore and the rock are normally involved in
caving, the caving proceeds in a columnar fashion to the surface, the
result is massive subsidence. Mining is conducted on sublevels from
development drifts and crosscuts, connected to the main haulage.
97
Conditions:
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,falte if deposit is thick.
5.Depth:<4000ft or 1.2 km
7.Ore grade: Moderate.
8.Ore uniformity: Moderate.

Cycle of operations:
Sublevel caving employs a conventional cycle of operations in nearly every
application.
Drill+last+load+haul.
The important auxiliary operations are ground control and ventilation. Ventilation is
easily carried out if the multiple sublevel crosscuts are interconnected,otherwise,vent
tubing is necessary.
Other auxiliary operations include health and safety measures,maintenance,power
supply, drainage, and material supply.
Block Caving:
It is the method in which masses, panels or blocks of ore are undercut to induce
caving, permitting the broken ore to be drawn off below. if the deposit is overlain by
capping or bounded by hangingwall, it caves too, breaking into the void created by
drawing the ore.
A grid of tunnel is driven under the ore body, the rock mass then undercut by
blasting.
Ideally the rock will break under its own weight, then ore is taken from draw points.
Block caving is utilized to produce about 10% of U.S underground metal and
nonmetal and 3% of all underground minerals.
Conditions: 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.
Cycle of operations: For exploitation, a truncated cycle of operation
is followed, because only the loading and haulage operations are
utilized(rock breakage is performed by caving action).
Drill+blast+load+haul.
Like the other caving methods, block caving requires elaborate ground
control measures. Reinforcement and concrete linings as well as
conventional supports, are often required in development
openings(raises, ore pass, slushier drifts, haulage drifts)that perform a
production function.
The most important auxiliary operation is ventilation.Drainage,material
supply,maintainance and power supply are other key functions.