Predicting surface mining influences in an integrated mining design and planning system

Abstract

While planning the exploitation of a deposit, the volume and quality of coal in the longwall parcels are taken into consideration, however, designers must consider many other aspects and among them, the influence of the planned mining on the ground surface. This article presents the possibility of using the Subsidence module, integrated with mining planning tools, to perform approximate analyses of the mining influence on the surface. The assumptions of the calculation model used in the module are presented, including the general characteristics of the influence function used for forecasting. The results of the prognosis for two longwalls were compared to a reference solution routinely used to perform this type of prognosis. The differences resulting from the use of a simpler calculation model and a different method of calculating horizontal displacements were characterized. The advantages of integrating spatial data about the deposit, the projected exploitation, and its effects, which allowed a much faster assessment of the scale of projected deformations and basing the calculations on detailed geological and mining data, were also presented.