Revisiting factors contributing to the strength of cemented backfill support system: A review

Abstract

This paper provides a review of the intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of cemented tailings backfill (CTB). The consideration is that once CTB is poured into underground stopes, its strength is heavily influenced by factors internal to the CTB as well as the surrounding mining environments. Peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and conference papers published between 2000 and 2022 were searched electronically from various databases and reviewed. Additional sources, such as doctoral theses, were obtained from academic repositories. An important finding from the review is that the addition of fibers was reported to improve the UCS of CTB in some studies while decrease in others. This discrepancy was accounted to the different properties of fibers used. Further research is therefore needed to determine the “preferred” fiber to be used in CTB. Diverging findings were also reported on the effects of stope size on the UCS of CTB. Furthermore, the use of fly ash as an alternative binder may be threatened in the future when reliance on the coal power declines. Therefore, an alternative cementitious by-product to be used together with furnace slag may be required in the future. Finally, while most studies on backfill focused on single-layered structures, layered backfill design models should also be investigated.