INTRODUCTION TO MINING MN 102

MINERAL EXPLOITATION: MINING

METHODS

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 MINERAL EXPLOITATION:
MINING METHODS
• This refers to the action of extracting the minerals from the
earth`s and shipping them or taking to the processing plant
for processing or beneficiation

• This stage is practiced after all the three preceding stages

have been economically and technically justifies

• It is done upon acquisition of funds from available sources

of finances e.g. Securities, stocks and government

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Mining methods

• Surface mining is a type of mining in which soil

and rock overlying the mineral deposit is removed

• Underground mining is the method where by the

mineral is removed through shafts or tunnels

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Surface mining methods
and their Classification

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Underground mining
methods and their
Classification

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Selection of Mining Methods
• The Cardinal rule of exploitation is to select a
mining method that matches the unique
characteristics (natural, physical, geologic, social,
political etc) of the mineral deposit being mined
subject to the requirements of safety, mineral
processing and the environment , to yield the
overall lowest cost and return the maximum profit.

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Factors to be considered in
selection of mining methods
1. Spatial characteristics of the deposit
2. Geologic and hydrologic conditions
3. Geotechnical (Soil and Rock Mechanics)
properties
4. Economic considerations
5. Technological factors
6. Environmental concerns

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Spatial characteristics of the deposit
• They largely decide the choice between surface and underground
mining, affect production rate and determine method of
materials handling and the layout of the mine in the ore body

• Size (especially height, thickness and overall dimensions)

• Shape (tabular, lenticular, massive or irregular)

• Attitude (inclination) or dip

• Depth (mean and extreme values, stripping ratio)

• Regularity of the ore boundaries

• Existence of previous mining

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 Geologic and Hydrologic
Conditions
• Geologic characteristics of the ore and surrounding country rock
influence choice between selective and non-selective methods and
ground support requirements for underground mines.
• Mineralogy governs solution mining, mineral processing and
smelting requirements.
• Mineralogy and petrography (sulphide vs oxides in copper)
• Chemical composition (primary and secondary minerals)
• Deposit structure (folds, faults, discontinuities, intrusions)
• Planes of weakness (joints, fractures, shear zones, cleavages in
minerals)
• Uniformity of grade
• Alteration and weathered zones

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Geotechnical (Soil and Rock
Mechanics) properties
Key factors in selecting the equipment in surface mine and
selecting the class of methods (unsupported, supported and
caving) if underground

• Elastic properties eg strength, modulus of elasticity etc)

• Plastic or viscosity

• State of stress (pre-mining and post-mining)

• Rock mass rating

• Specific gravity, voids, porosity, permeability moisture 10

Economic considerations
• Economic factors affect output, investment,
cashflow, payback period and profit
• Reserve (tonnage and grade)
• Production rate (output per unit time)
• Mine life (total operating period for
development and exploitation)
• Productivity (tons or tonnes/employee hour)
• Comparative mining costs of suitable methods
• Comparative capital costs of suitable methods
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 Technological factors
• The best match between the natural conditions and the
mining methods is sought
• Recovery (proportional of ore that is extracted)
• Dilution (amount of waste that must be produced with
the ore)
• Flexibility of the method to changing conditions
• Selectivity of the method (ability to extract ore and leave
waste)
• Concentration of dispersion of workings
• Ability to mechanize and automate
• Capital and labor intensities

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Environmental concerns
• Physical, political, social and economic climate must
be considered and will occasion, require that a mining
method be rejected because of these concerns:
• Ground control to maintain integrity of openings
• Subsidence, or caving effects at the surface
• Atmospheric control (ventilation, air quality control,
heat and humidity control)
• Availability of suitable waste disposal areas
• Workforce (availability, training, living, community
conditions)
• Comparative safety conditions of the suitable mining
methods
•

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MINING TERMINOLGIES

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 Surface mining methods
• Mechanical extraction class of surface mining
methods –employs mechanical processes in dry
environment to free minerals from the earth.
Four methods are –
• Open pit mining
• Quarrying
• Open cast mining
• Auger mining

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Open pit mining
•Any overburden is stripped and
transported to disposal area to uncover
the mineral deposit
•Both stripping and mining are
conducted from one or a sequence of
benches
•Each successive bench being cut to
smaller radius because of slope
imposed by safety consideration
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OPEN PIT

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OPEN PIT

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Open cast mining
•Is a surface exploitation method used
mainly for coal which resembles to open
pit mining method in one unique
respect –the over burden is not
transported to the waste dumps for
disposal but cast or hauled directly into
adjacent mined out panels.
•Material handling consist of excavation
and haulage (casting)
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Quarrying

•Dimension- stone quarrying

•Quarries resemble open pits but the

benches are lower and nearly vertical

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QUARRYING

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Auger mining
• Auger mining is a method for surface high wall or
outcrop recovery of coal by boring or excavating
openings into the seam beneath the overburden
• Is a mining method that recovers coal or other
minerals from under the highwall when the ultimate
stripping ratio has been achieved in open pit or cast
mining operation
• Extraction, haulage and are performed by auger
machine
• Haulage also can be performed by other means such
as conveyor units or trains
• The use of auger mining is quite attractive
economically 24
Augering

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AUGERING

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AUGERING

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Aqueous Extraction Methods

• The aqueous extraction methods are uniquely reliant

on water or an aqueous mixture during mining and
processing to recover the valuable mineral by jetting,
slurrying, dissolving, or melting.

• Two types
(1) placer mining or related methods and
(2) solution mining methods
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 Placer Mining
• A placer deposit is any concentration of minerals that has been redeposit
in unconsolidated form by the action of a fluid (water); alluvial, marine,
and glacial.
• Most placer are sand and gravel deposited by water.
• These are the sources of gold, diamonds, tin, titanium, tungsten,
chromate, magnetite, coal, phosphates and sand and gravel
• Properties
• Material amenable to disintegration by the action of water under
pressure (or chemical dislodgement and hydraulic transport
• Adequate water supply available at the required head
• Adequate space for water disposal
• Difference in density or similar property between ore minerals and
gangue to allow efficient mineral process
• Natural gradient amenable to hydraulic transport of mineral (if
hydraulicking
• Ability to comply with environmental regulations 29
Placer mining
Placer mining is used to exploit mineral deposits that
are loosely cohesive or are nonconsolidated, such as
sand and gravel or alluvium that contains a valuable
heavy mineral in a free state
Native gold and platinum, diamonds, tin in the form of
cassiterite, and titanium as rutile and ilmenite
commonly are found in placer form.
Two historical placering methods have been
modernized and find application for a variety of
mining purposes; they are
1. Hydraulicking and
2. Dredging.

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1. Hydraulicking mining method
(also called hydraulic mining) utilizes a high-pressure stream of water
that is directed against an exposed bank, thereby undercutting it and
causing it to collapse

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HYDRAULICKING MINING
METHOD

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2. DREDGING
accomplishes extraction of the ore minerals mechanically or
hydraulically, normally from floating vessels. The body of water may be
natural or human-made

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Solution mining methods

Solution mining is the method in which

minerals are recovered by leaching,
dissolution, melting or slurring process. It
include
1. Borehole mining
2. Leaching methods
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Borehole Mining
• Borehole mining utilizes wells to access mineral values
located under the earth. The wells are generally used
to inject water and/or a lixiviant into the mineral
deposit to effect the mineral extraction. The methods
of attacking are ore melting, leaching, dissolution and
slurrying the valuable mineral for recovery purpose.
• Possibility for:
• Melting of sulfur (Frasch process)
• In situ leaching of uranium, copper, gold and silver
• Dissolution of salt and potash
• Slurrying of phosphate, kaolin, oil and coal

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Open pit mine terminologies
Open Pit Mine- an excavation or cut made at the surface
of the ground for the purpose of extracting ore which is
open to the surface for the duration of the mine's life

Bench-a ledge that forms a single level of operation above

which mineral or waste materials are mined back to a
bench face

Bench height- vertical distance between the highest point

(crest) of a bench and the lowest (toe) of the bench
Bench slope- the angle, measured in degrees between
the horizontal and an imaginary line joining the crest
and the toe of the bench

Berm- a horizontal shelf within the pit wall slope that is

left for stability. The berm slope angle and width are
determined geotechnical configuration. The berm
interval, berm slope angle, and berm width are governed
by the geotechnical configuration of the slope
• Pit limits- the vertical and lateral extent to which
the open pit mine may be economically
conducted
• Angle of repose- is the maximum slope at which
a heap of loose material will stand without
sliding
• Haul road- a road is maintained in a uniform
spiral arrangement from top to bottom of the pit.
A zigzag or switch back haul road system is
depending upon the shape and size of the ore
body and equipment and the stability of the pi
Break

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 Mining
Terminologies &
Symbols for
Underground
Underground terminologies
Adit: Horizontal or nearly horizontal entrance to a mine

Back: Roof or overhead surface of an underground excavation

Crosscut: Horizontal or nearly horizontal underground opening

driven to intersect an ore body

Dip: Angle at which an ore deposit is inclined from the

horizontal

Decline: Secondary inclined opening, driven downwards to

connect levels, sometimes on the dip of a deposit, can also
mean decline shaft
Drawpoint: Place where ore can be loaded and removed. A
drawpoint is located beneath the stoping area, and gravity
flow transfers the ore to the loading place

Drift: Horizontal or nearly horizontal underground opening

Drive: It is an horizontal opening (roadway) lying in or near

an ore body, running parallel to the strike of an ore/ coal
seam

Footwall: Wall or rock under the ore deposit.

Hanging Wall: Wall or rock above an ore deposit

Raise: Underground opening driven upward from one level to a higher
level or to the surface; a raise may be either vertical or inclined
(compare winze).

Winze: Vertical or inclined underground opening driven downward from

one level to another level or from the surface to a level

Finger Raise: Typically, a system of several raises that branch together to

the same delivery point used for transferring ore

Grizzly: Arrangement that prevents oversized rock from entering an ore

transfer system.

Level: System of horizontal underground workings connected to the

shaft. A level forms the basis for excavation of the ore above or below
Muck-Ore or rock that has been broken by blasting
Loading Box: It is a facility for transferring/ Loading
ore from a chute to a conveyance. E.g. a mine car,
or a conveyor or a truck
Ore Pass: Vertical or inclined underground opening
through which ore is transferred
Portal: Opening or connection to the surface from
an underground excavation
Ramp: Inclined underground opening that connects
levels or production areas; ramps are inclined to
allow the passage of motorized vehicles. Ramps
usually are driven downward.
Shaft: Vertical or inclined underground opening
through which a mine is worked
Sublevel: System of horizontal underground
workings; normally, sublevels are used only within
stoping areas where they are required for ore
production
Stope: Underground excavation made by removing
ore from surrounding rock
Waste: Barren rock or rock of too low a grade to be
mined economically. Or it is the material associated
with an ore deposit that must be mined to get the
ore and must then be discarded. Gangue is
particularly type of waste
Manway: Underground opening that is intended for
personnel access and communication
Strike: Main horizontal course or direction of a
mineral deposit

Station: Is an excavation connecting a level and a

shaft

Slot: Vertical or inclined ore section excavated to

open up for further stopping.
 Underground mining methods
• Why underground mining method?

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• Underground mining is the method of mineral
exploitation where by the minerals are removed through
shafts or tunnels. The extraction of the minerals takes
place beneath earth’s surface.
• Underground methods are employed when the depth of
the deposit, the stripping ratio of overburden to ore (or
coal or stone), or both become excessive for surface
exploitation
• In underground mining , working of an ore deposit is
arbitral divided into 3 steps namely:
1. Opening up
2. Development
3. Stoping or exploitation

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(1) Opening up
Creation of underground access to a mineral deposit,
from the ground surface or from an already
exploited part of a mine to an unexploited part.
- Careful planning and Layout of access openings
for efficient safe mining is crucial.
Opening up works involves drivage of:
I. Main entrance to the mine: vertical shafts, inclined shaft, ramp or
an adit, depending on the characteristic of the deposit, geographic,
geologic, environmental technical and economic
II. Main Levels

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 Shaft sinking
Main item to consider in selection of shaft are
• Installation from surface or underground
• Vertical or inclined
• Tonnage to be hoisted
• Size of mining equipment to be lowered through
the shaft to the underground mining workings
• Amount of water to be handled in the operation
• Ventilation requirements
• Type of the ground the shaft is to be sunk through
• Position of the shaft with relation to the ore body
 (2)Development:
• The work that involves driving mine
workings within opened up portions of a
deposit and having subsidiary significance
for stopping operations to be started e.g. sub-
levels, raises, winzes, drilling drives, ore
gathering drives, ore passes etc.
• (3) Stopping or Exploitation: This is the
actual recovery of the minerals from the
ground. Where surface mining methods are
not feasible, under ground methods are in
most cases the best option.
The choice of an underground mining method is
mainly influenced by :-
• Shape of the deposit
• Inclination of the deposit
• Thickness of the deposit
• Rock properties of ore body and host rocks
• Depth of the ore body and geologic characteristics
(whether faulted, jointed folded etc).
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end

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1. Naturally supported stoping method (Unsupported Methods)
• Consists of the methods in which the rock is essentially self
supporting and for which no major artificial support is necessary
to carry the load of the overlying rock. The mining methods
includes room- and-pillar mining, stope and pillar mining,
shrinkage stoping, sublevel stoping, and vertical crater retreat
mining
2. Supported Methods: The supported class of underground
mining methods consists of those methods that require substantial
amounts of artificial support to maintain stability in exploitation
openings and systematic ground control throughout the mine.
Supported methods are used when production openings will not
remain standing during their active life and when major caving or
subsidence to the surface cannot be tolerated
3. Caving Method
• A class of methods in which the exploitation openings are
designed to collapse that is caving of the ore or rock or both

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1. Unsupported Methods
a) Room-and-Pillar Mining
• Room or stope and pillar mining method is
grouped under naturally supported methods.
• It is an open stopping method by which mining
progresses in a nearly horizontal or low-angle
direction by opening multiple stopes or rooms,
leaving solid material ore to act as pillars to
support the vertical loads
• Suited to the production of coal, potash,
sodium chloride, trona, limestone and any
metallic deposits that occurs in horizontal seam
•
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Room and pillar

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 Unsupported methods cont.
b) Shrinkage stopping
• Method carried on essentially in a vertical or near vertical plane at
an angle greater than the angle of repose of the broken ore
• This is an overhand 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 working platform
for the miners
• thereafter the broken ore is withdrawn through chutes into
haulage drifts on the level below
• Mining progresses upward, with slabs of ore being broken along
the length of the stope.
• Minerals mined include lead, trona, potash, limestone, salt and
uranium

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 Stopes are mined upward in horizontal slices.
Normally, about 35-40 % of the ore derived from the
stope cuts (the swell) can be drawn off (“shrunk”) as
mining progresses.
 As a consequence, no revenues can be obtained from
the ore remaining in the stop until it is finally extracted
and processed for its mineral values. ( 40% of ore is
drawn at Kahama)
 It is usually applied to ore bodies on narrow veins or
ore bodies where other methods cannot be used or
might be impractical or uneconomical

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Shrinkage stopping

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 Unsupported Method Cont.

c) Sublevel Stoping
• A large open stope is created within the vein.
• All works of drilling and blasting must be performed from
sublevel within the ore block
• Long blastholes are drilled into the ore in a parallel or fanlike
pattern to fracture the rock
• Variations
• Blasthole method
• Open ending method
• Vertical crater retreat method (VCR)
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3. Artificially supported
• Supported methods are used when production
openings will not remain standing during their active
life and when major caving or subsidence to the
surface cannot be tolerated.
• This method is employed when unsupported and
caving methods are not applicable.
• The example of support is pillars and backfill
• Heavy support systems includes timber stulls and
timber or steel sets and trusses, and steel jacks e.t.c

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Artificially Supported Cont

a) Cut-and-Fill Stoping
• The orebody is retrieved in horizontal slices beginning at the
very bottom and advancing upwards towards the surface.
• Cut and fill stoping is usually employed for weak tabular
deposits. As mining progresses, normally upward, sand,
tailings, or waste backfill is placed in the stope to provide
support for the walls. The ore, recovered in horizontal slices, is
moved to chutes or orepasses mechanically, and the waste is
usually distributed hydraulically.

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3. Caving methods
• The exploitation openings are designed to collapse that is
caving of the ore or rock or both is intentionally and the very
essence of the method
• Caving methods are those associated with induced, controlled,
massive caving of the ore body overlying rock, or both,
concurrent with
• All caving methods function on the principle that mineralized
rock and surrounding rock fractures under more or less
controlled conditions
• The ore extracted creates a caving area on the surface above the
orebody

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• 1. Longwall Mining
• Used in flat –lying, relatively thin, tabular deposits in
which a long face is established to extract the minerals
• The face is being advanced toward the main entry set.
the retreat direction
• The longwall is kept open by a system of heavy duty,
powered yielding supports that form 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 called gob
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 Caving Methods Cont.

2. Sublevel caving
• Near-vertical deposits of metals and nonmetals
• Overall mining progresses downward while the ore is broken overhand
• The overlying waste rock (H/W or capping) caves into the void created as
the ore is drawn
• Mining is conducted on sublevels from development drifts and cross-cuts,
connected to the main haulage below by ramps, ore passes and raises
• Ore is divided into sublevels 8-15m , each sublevel is developed with
regular networks of drifts covering completely ore section
• Because only the waste is caved the ore must be drilled and blasted in the
customary way
• Each sublevel is drilled with long holes which are then blasted starting
from the hanging wall retreating to the footwall

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Sublevel caving

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 3. Block Caving
• Potential to rival surface mining in output and cost
• It is the mining method in which mass, 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 a hanging wall, it caves
too, breaking into the void created by drawing the ore
• Unlike sublevel caving, the ore and the rock are normally involved in caving
• The caving proceeds normally in a columnar fashion to the surface
• The result is massive subsidence, accompanied by the rate and great areal
extent characteristics of block caving

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 Mine planning and design

Mining Planning is a process of determining the most

sequence of mineral exploitation derived from the best
decision (economical, technical and social) or Planning of an
extraction schedule, typically over during the life of a mine
Mining Deign differs from design of structures such as
building of bridges where by the designer can specify the
materials with specific properties, eg concrete, mine design
has no equivalent procedure. Mine engineer has to do
his/her design in natural rock
The objective of mine planning is to provide
quantitative account rather than descriptive
account of mineral exploitation
Aims
• Increase the output per man shift
• Reduction in cost of production
• Increase recovery of valuable mineral and
decrease the losses of ore
• Ensure safety for workers
 Important Considerations in mine
planning
• Safety
• Conservation of resources
• Environmental impact
• Reclamation of land
• Economic and feasibility
Planning is a management function while design
is an engineering function dealing with planning
layout of mineral extraction system.
Mining systems
• Surface mining (pit, quarries etc)
• Underground mining (open stopes, caving
systems, supported stopes)
Levels of mine planning

• National level
Politician (government) does this planning

• Corporate Level (Group Mine Planning)

This is a corporate executive function

• Mine Level Planning (Individual Mine)

Function of technical managers and engineers

• Production level (Stope/ Face planning level)

This is a function of engineer/technical managers
Types of mine planning activities

1. Long –range mine planning (5-50 years)

The objectives in designing a long - range plan are
• Determination of an ore reserve of the mine
• Ore body delineation (extent of ore-body, geometry etc)
• Determination of mining limits, production rate, life of a mine,
grade (cut-off grade) etc.
Long - range plan is subject to change
due to:
• Increase knowledge about the
deposit
• Changing economics
• Improved technology update plans
regularly by skilled engineers, hence
the use of computer.
2. Short – range Mine Planning

Key factors to consider include:

• Plans must ensure productive capacity
• Overall production meets projected mining, milling and smelting
capacities and constraints
• Stability and safety
• Equipment available and its maneuverability
• Generate daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly production
schedule
 Salient factors requiring
consideration when planning new
mines (feasibility)
• Information on deposit
• Information on general project economics
• Mining methods selection
• Processing methods
• Capital and operating cost estimates
Factors in the choice of mining
methods
There are six major parameters that should be
considered when evaluating a mining method:
• Physical and geological characteristics of the
deposit
• Ground conditions of the hanging wall, footwall
and ore zone
• Mining and capital costs
• Mining rate
• Availability and cost of labor
• Environmental regulations
Principles of surface Mining and
Underground Mining method selection

In a choice between surface and underground mining

methods, these factors can be taken into account
• Size, shape and depth of the deposit
• Rock conditions
• Productivities and machinery capacities
• Capital requirements and operating costs
• Ore recoveries and revenues
• Safety and injuries
• Environmental aspects
what is the optimal depth for changing over from
surface to underground mining?

An economic comparison between open pit or

underground mining of a deposit should begin
with sound reserve and grade estimation
At the next stage,
• Surface mine designs as well as underground mine
designs must be studied;
• waste rock stripping,
• dilution should be estimated
• A reasonable annual production rate must be
selected
• considering the market,
• the size of the reserve,
• capacity aspects,
• machinery,
• energy,
• labor
• Reasonable capital and operating cost estimates
must be made,
• Revenues estimated, and cash-flow profiles shown
for each alternative
 STRIPPING RATIO
The ratio between the volume of tonnage of waste and ore
that must be removed in an open pit. A lower stripping ratio
means that less waste has to be removed to expose the ore
for mining and generally results in a lower operating cost.
S= Volume of waste
volume of ore
Types of stripping ratio

• Decline stripping ration

• Increasing stripping ratio
• Constant stripping ration
Decline stripping ratio

This method requires each bench of ore be mined in sequence and all
waste in particular bench is removed to the pit limit
Increasing stripping ratio

In this method stripping is performed as needed to uncover the ore,

the working slopes of the waste faces are essentially maintained
parallel to the overall pit slope angle
Constant stripping

This method attempt to remove the waste at a rate approximated by the overall
stripping ratio, the working slope of the waste faces start very shallow but
increases as mining depth increase until the working slope equals to the overall
pit slope