ASSIGNMENT ON

UNDERGROUND METAL
MINING
 Classification of mining methods
 Factor affecting the choice of mining method
 Overhand
CONTENTS
 Underhand
 Brest stoping
 Open stoping
 Sublevel stoping
 Room & pillar method
 STOPING
• Stoping is the final extraction of an ore body that
has already been developed. The main work consists
of drilling and blasting of ore removal of broken ore
from working place and supporting the ground so
that the operations can be carried out safely.
Various methods of stoping are adopted to exploit
different ore deposits but the main objective in all
cases is to mine the ore deposits in safest and most
economical way without sacrificing the interest of
conservation of minerals, a wasting asset.
 Factors affecting the choice of mining
method
• The shape, size and regularity of deposit.
• Mineralogical character and value of ore and the distribution of values.
• The dip, width and strength of the ore.
• The character of the walls.
• Ease with which ore separates from the walls.
• Continuity of the ore within the boundaries of the deposits.
• The cost and the availability of the support material.
• Depth below surface, and nature of overburden.
• Output desired and extent of mechanisation planned for stoping within the
financial resource available.
• Possibility of dilution of ore with waste.
• These factors are interdependent and of varying importance. Their effect on the
choice of a mining method will be apparent as one understands the various
methods of stoping and the circumstances under which they are applicable.
Type of ore
Body Dip Strength of Ore Strength of Walls Possible method
        of Mining
    Strong Strong Room and pillar
        Casual pillar
Thin Bodies Flat     Open stopes

    Weak or Strong Weak Top slicing

        Longwall
        Sub-Level stoping
    Strong Strong Room and pillar
        Cut and fill
Thick
Bodies Flat Weak or Strong Weak Sub-Level stoping
        Top slicing
        Square set
    Weak Strong Cut and fill
        Sub-Level stoping
        Resuing in
Narrow
Veins Steep Weak or Strong Weak or Strong a) Open stopes or
        b) Stilled stopes
         Shrinkage stope
        Cut and fill method
        Cut and fill stopes
  Steep Strong Weak Square set stope

Top slicing sub level

Thick veins       caving
        Open casual pillar
        Square set stope
  Steep Weak Strong Top slicing
        Block caving
        Sub-Level caving
        Square set stope
  Steep Weak Weak Top slicing
        Sub-Level caving
        Shrinkage stope
    Strong Strong Sub-Level stoping
        Cut and fill stopes
Massive       Square set stope
    Weak Weak or Strong Top slicing
        Sub-Level caving
        Block caving
 Classification of stopping method
A. Stopes naturally supported:
1. Open stoping
a) Open stoping in small ore body
b)Sublevel stoping
c)Long hole stoping
2. Open stopes with pillar support
a)casual pillar
b) room & pillar
B.Stopes artificially supported
3. shrinkage stoping
a) with pillar
 b) without pillar
c) with subsequent waste filling
4. cut & fill stoping
5. stulled stopes in narrow vein
6. square set stoping
C. Caved stoping
7.caving
a) block caving
b)sublevel caving
8. top slicing
D.Combination of supported and caved stope
 OVRHAND STOPING
• Stoping starts from a raise in one direction or in other direction. The
stoping operation proceeds from lower level to upper level and ore is
expected in step like faces or benches in ascending order. The lower
benches being driven ahead of the upper ones. Chute for the broken ore
are constructed so that ore falls to the haulage level protected by the sill
pillar. Method is known as back stoping because it has an appearance of
inverted step.
• If ore body has a mild gradient which prevents gravitation of blasted
ore, scrapper are used to collect and load into mine cars. Stoping is
started by drivage of an undercutting level above the sill pillar, starting
from the raise. Ore chutes are provided 5 to 7 meter apart. The ore block
is worked from the bottom upwards but the benches are extracted along
the strike. The miners stand on the planks laid down over the stulls.
Strong Ore and Strong Rock must be present with the steep dip gradient and the thickness
of ore body should be 0.3 to 6 meters.
ADVANTAGES:
•Broken ore falls clear off the face and at steep dip gravitates to the level below.
•Misfires are consequently easily detected.
•Hanging wall and faces are easily accessible for examination.
•The face act as protective overhead cover for the drillers.
•Ore and waste are readily sorted in the stope and later can be packed on stulls for support.
•There is a reserve of broken ore in the stope in case of temporary stopage.
•There are several boxes at the lower level so that ore can be drawn from many places at the
same time.
•It is a safe since worker can keep an eye on the condition of back and walls of stope.
•Method permits easy switch over to the other method of mining if mining condition change.
DISADVANTAGES:
•Not amenable to large scale mechanisation in drilling due to steep gradient.
•Extra work is involved in erection of stopes and working platforms.
FIGURE OF OVERHAND STOPING
Over hand system of panel stoping by powered mining set. Travelling along
monorail has successfully tested at primary mine USSR.

ADVANTAGES:
•Improved drillers’ operation safety.
•Obviates stulling.
•Increased labour productivity.
DISADVANTAGES:
•Great volume of development is required
RILL STOPING
 Rill stoping

It is a form of overhand stoping where the extraction of ore is in inclined slices. The
longitudinal section looks like an inverted ‘V’ with an inclined back.
CONDITIONS:
•Thickness should be less than 5 – 6 meters. However 3 meter is an economical limit.
•Dip should be more than 45 degree.
•Deposit shape must be regular.
•The boundaries along the walls should be clear.
•The ore should be such that much picking of ore is not necessary.
•Ore and wall should be strong.
Rill stope may be either open or filled stope. Filling material is distributed manually and
by gravity. Hence general slope of the stope face is nearly parallel to the angle of
repose of filling material.
DISADVANTAGE:
•Working condition for workers on sloping ways fill are difficult as drilling and
movement are difficult.
•Greater vertical expansion of wall is expose
 UNDERHAND STOPING
• This method is used in working thin steeply dipping veins enclosed in
strong wall rocks. In an underhand stope, the face is below the driller
who is supported partially by the face and partially by the footwall. The
stope is worked in downward direction from main level to the lower
main level commencing from a winze. At the upper level, a crown pillar
along the strike of ore body is left insitu for support of the main level
except for a few opening to reach the area to be stoped out. A
horizontal slice 2-2.5 meter high is started on top of the ore block.
• Underhand stoping is applied at an angle of 45 – 90 degree.
• Cornish method: it is used for narrow veins.
• Underhand stoping by widening of winze by overhand stoping.
• Mill hole method: it is used for widening and massive deposit
CORNISH METHOD
 Cornish method (continued)
this method is applied for the ore body having dip 45 to 90 degree.
This method destroys the floor of the upper drive which can be maintained by
a row of stulls or by pillars in later case a second drive below the pillar is called
the stope drive which is kept in advance of the mining operation. When the
stope reaches the lower level, stulls or pillars of ore are used for overhead
protection. Ore is shovelled to the winze and removed from the box.
ADVANTAGES:
No timber is required to support the drillers. Downholes are easily drilled.
DISADVANTAGES:
•The winze becomes blocked with ore, preventing access from the lower level
and stopping the ventillating current.
•There is only one box for withdrawal of ore.
•As area of unsupported hanging wall increases, it becomes inaccessible for
inspection.
UNDERHAND STOPING METHOD BY
WIDENING OF WINZE BY OVERHAND
• Narrow deposit having strong ore and walls, it is more suitably
applied to dip from 30 to 45 degree where shovelling or
scrapping in any case be necessary. The bottom of the winze is
widened by moving of the ore overhand untill there is a room
for several boxes or chute, then underhand practice is followed.
Broken ore is shovelled from the face and is directed by 2 wings
of stulls to the boxes above the lower level.
• ADVANTAGES:
• The wing does not becomed blocked so that accessibility and
ventilation are improved.
• Compared with overhand stope less timber is required
 MILLHOLE METHOD
• because the roof becomes inaccessible as funnel deepens.
• Mill hole method are used for wide veins and massive deposit, wide steeply
dipping veins having strong ore and walls.
• Entry is done from outside of ore body. The level interval is about 60-100 ft.
Crosscut are made to reach the ore body, drives are excavated in both
directions following the walls. In the case of massive deposit, these
eventually surround the occurance and meet on the opposite walls. Parallel
crosscuts are then tunnelled to 50-60 ft. Interval dividing the level in 2 blocks.
Raises are put up from the drive and crosscuts are made to the level above.
• The top of the raises are widened to a funnel shaped, working in benches
underhand, leaving the pilar of ore to support the upper level. When these
funnels have been fully opened, and ore will no longer gravitate, the V-
shaped pillar between them are robbed by raising. Finally they are drilled
with the level pillars. No supports are required but ore must be strong
 COMPARISION BETWEEN O/H & U/H
STOPING
• In overhand stoping, it allows high backs.
• It makes a systematic sorting of the ore possible; ore and waste can be
sorted in the stope and the sorted waste can easily be deposited in the
mined out area.
• Broken ore falls clear off the face; the ore falls to the haulage drived by the
gravity even with a shallow dip.
• Hangingwall and face can be conveniently examined.
• DISADVANTAGE:
• The performance of the drillers is less.
• With a dip exceeding 45 degree, platforms have to be erected in the stopes
for the miners.
• Much supporting material is used.
• The losses of fine ore are considerable.
Brest stoping
• CONDITION:
• Deposit of horizontal dip or mild dip.
• Thickness of ore upto 5 meter.
• Laying at moderate depth.
• Ore should not be of much value as some ore pillars have to be left. In this method,
the ore is broken by flat ore slightly inclined holes drilled in a vertical plane for width
greater than 3 meter, breast method can still be adopted by taking 2 meter by
breasting and the rest by underhand stoping.
• Stoping is commenced from raise 1 driven from haulage way 2. Loading stope 3 is
connected with the haulage road 2 by short ore chute and prepared by drilling and
blasting at 6 meter intervals. Face advances along the strike. The broken ore is slushed,
through ore chute and by scrapper hoist 6. Installed in special recess. The worked out
stope is supported by irregular pillar, timber rifts 9 and individual prop 10.
• ADVANTAGES:
• Higher labour productivity.
• Considerable stoping area and high intensity of stoping.
• Simplicity and low prime cost of ore.
• Possiblity of mechanisation of drilling and loading at face.
• Selective mining is possible.
•  
• DISADVANTAGES:
• To need for keeping a constant watch on the condition of
the back.
• High ore losses in randomly abandoned pillars.
 Sub-level stoping
Introduction
 Sublevel stoping is also known as blast hole or long hole stoping, is
an open stoping .
 The method is firstly started in the Michigan iron mines in 1902
 Sublevel stoping currently accounts for some 9% of US and 3% of
world noncoal production
 The method is often selected as an alternative to sublevel caving
when dilution levels must be kept to a minimum. In the Zambian
Copperbelt, dilution was reduced from 30 to 20% by changing from
sublevel caving to sublevel stoping,
although recovery dropped from 90 to 80% because of difficulties in
pillar recovery
 Preparatory work
 Mine devolopment genarally starts from the sunk of
shaft in footwall to avoid any subsequent caving
effect.The ore body is vertically divided by cross cuts &
haulage level at every 45m to 120m .Raises are made
to used further subdivided the ore body into blocks
for stoping.
 Driving of cross cutand of 2 or 3 sublevel nearly 20 m
apartat the footwall side with the ore body
 Haulage drift situated at main level below stope
bottom.
 Preparetory work (continued)
 Stopes are typically contained by a crown
pillar, which protects the level above, rib
pillars, and a sill pillar through which the ore
collection system is cut.
 Draw point system consist loading through
finger raises to a grizzly level and then directly
into mine cars.Draw points are usually 9m
centre to centre.
 Method
• The method involvesthe driving of sublevelwith the prebodyto
virtically divided a blockto be stoped.miners working within
the sublevelopenings drill pattern ofor fan pattern,to blast
large vertical sliceof oreore is produced by drilling & blasting
long holewhich may range in diametre of50-200mmwith
length up to 90m.the ore falls into a large open stopecreated
by previous ore blast.vertical pillar are left between stopes on
same levelthese are called rib pillar.horizontal pillars are leftto
support the main haulage level.the horizontal pillar to support
the upper level is calledcrown pillar, & support for lower level
is called still pillar.
 ADVANTAGE
 The continuous availiability of ore are as there is
nosuspension of work for filling.
 Low cost per tonne of ore extracted.
 Number of workers in the stope are few.
 As no draw point have to be devlopedor formed at the top
level production from the top level can be started early.
 Workers do not have to enter the stope and the operation
are safe.the workers should however keepback from the
brow of the stope and guard agaiinst the falling rocks.
 ADVANTAGE(continued)
 Retreat mining results in mininmum
mantenance of roadways.
 There is good ventillation through the
sublevels.
 Mechanisation in drilling ,loading and
transpotationis possible.
 DISADVANTAGE
 Preparatory work for stoping is heavy & some
what complicated. For good results and
economy long hole drilling is essential & drill
rigs normally not requirwdduring the
devolopment stage ,have to be produced from
abroad, as indigenoussupplier are few.
 Selective mining is difficult.all the ore in
vertical plane has to be extracted.
 Room & pillar method
(Application)
 Ore with horizontal or flat deposit, maximum
inclination about 30degree or less.
 Compratively stablehanging wall and ore.
 Orebody upto 12 m thickness.
 Prepration
• In horizontal or nearly horizontal dip deposit
the prepration deposit consist only in the
prepration of roadways for ore.
• In inclined ore deposits are divided vertically
in levels, on which the haulage drills are
established along the footwall & stoping starts
from haulage drift advanced along dip-raise
direction.
 Method
• In this method the ore is extracted in wide rooms
seprated by pillars of in situ provided in regular
manner for support of hanging wall .the dimension
of room and pillar depends on the such factor as
stability of hangingwall , ore thickness of ore
deposit & rock pressure.pillars are genrally arranged
in regular pattern and shape of pillar is circular or
square in cross-section.the ore left in pillar may to
some extent be recoverd but generally to be
regarded as lost.