Abstract
Almost all the coal is produced from open cut mines in Indonesia. As a consequence of open cut mine application, a great deal of coal is left out in the highwalls of the mined-out pits. Highwall mining systems can be used to recover this coal. The use of highwall mining systems has increasingly come into play in the US and Australia. However, it is not common in Indonesia. Moreover, Indonesia coal measure is categorized as weak geological condition. Some problems are likely to arise during the application of the highwall mining system for example instability of openings and highwalls due to the roof and pillar failures. Therefore, study of highwall mining system application in Indonesia is needed in order to increase the recovery rate of coal mining in Indonesia. This paper described the characteristics of the highwall mining system and discussed the appropriate highwall mining system application in weak geological condition, Indonesia. From the results of a series of laboratory tests and numerical analyses, it can be concluded that the stability of pillars and mine openings in auger mining systems is much higher than that in CHM and an auger mining system is suitable for such as very weak/poor strata conditions. Moreover, the application of backfilling system is very effective for improvement of the stability of pillar and openings.
Highlights
Indonesia produces over 400 Mt of clean coal and is the second largest coal exporter to Japan, accounting for about 32 Mt of coal annually
Indonesia coal measure is categorized as weak geological condition
This paper described the characteristics of the highwall mining system and discussed the appropriate highwall mining system application in weak geological condition, Indonesia
Summary
Indonesia produces over 400 Mt of clean coal and is the second largest coal exporter to Japan, accounting for about 32 Mt of coal annually. Highwall mining is a technique utilized after an open cut portion of a reserve has been mined, sometimes prior to the introduction of underground mining (Seib 1993). In this system, the coal seam is mined by remotely operated equipment, such as an auger machine or a modified continuous miner incorporated into a highwall mining system (Fig. 1). Major issues of highwall mining systems are less coal recovery due to leaving coal as the pillars and the instability of openings and highwalls due to the pillar and roof failures These geotechnical and operational issues have been occurring in Indonesia when the conventional highwall. This paper describes the characteristics of the highwall mining system and discusses the appropriate highwall mining system in Indonesia including the application of the backfilling system to improve the stability of excavated highwall
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