Cap rock blast caving of cavity under open pit bench

Abstract

A laser technique based scanning system was employed to make a comprehensive scanning through borehole for unmapped cavity under open pit bench, then the three-dimensional data will be obtained, and these data were used for theoretical analysis and numerical simulation to analyze the stability of cap rock. Acoustic emission techniques were also adopted to carry out long term real time rupture monitoring in cap rock. Therefore, a complete safety evaluation system for the cap rock was established to ensure safe operation of subsequent blasting processes. The ideal way of eliminating collapse hazard of such cavity is cap rock caving through deep-hole blasting, thus, two deep-hole blasting schemes named as vertical deep-hole blasting scheme and one-time raise driving integrated with deep-hole bench blasting scheme were proposed. The vertical deep-hole blasting scheme has more explosive consumption, but the relatively simple blasting net work structure can greatly reduce workloads. However, the one-time raise driving integrated with deep-hole bench blasting scheme can obviously reduce explosive consumption, but the higher technical requirements on drilling, explosive charging and blasting network will increase workloads.