Abstract
The stability of underground excavations has become an important issue in order to extend underground mining operations and extract deeper deposits. The increasing demand for Tin-Tungsten (Sn-W) for industry and its market price has created a motivation for mining companies to extract deep-seated Sn-W ore deposits in Myanmar. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the stability of underground openings, especially, the stope with considering the mining methods. To meet the objective, FLAC3D 5.0 simulation was used for the assessment of stope under different stress ratios, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 for two types of underground mines; Open stoping and Cut and Fill stoping. The results show that the risk of instability of stope is high under the stress ratio of K = 0.5 than that of K = 1.0 and K = 1.5 in both mining methods. However, the stability of the stope in open stope method is lower than that of cut-and-fill method obviously. This result shows that the appropriate mining method has to be selected for extraction of Sn-W deposit carefully in terms of the balance of safety and cost.
Highlights
IntroductionOpen stoping and cut-and-fill method are commonly used as underground mining methods in Myanmar because the ore body, which is from primary source, is located at a considerable depth, especially at the Hermyingyi (W-Sn) deposit mine
The results show that the risk of instability of stope is high under the stress ratio of K = 0.5 than that of K = 1.0 and K = 1.5 in both mining methods
It can be said that the application of the cut-and-fill method can improve the stability of the stope obviously, but 20 m or more thicker barrier pillar should be left for safe operation under the stress ratio of K = 0.5
Summary
Open stoping and cut-and-fill method are commonly used as underground mining methods in Myanmar because the ore body, which is from primary source, is located at a considerable depth, especially at the Hermyingyi (W-Sn) deposit mine. The application of open stope and cut-and-fill methods for underground mining generally encounter failures due to the geological structure and high regional stress condition. The stoping method is cardinally influenced by environmental effects related to the induced stress of natural conditions and the structure of geometry, the quartz-vein type is a typical (Sn-W) deposit in this study area. Controlling stope stability is crucial, for the safety of the mineworkers and transportation of equipment and for the capacity of mine production capacity and profitability by minimizing unexpected ore body suspension
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