Underground ore mining technologies: Current challenges, sustainable development and transition to a new technological paradigm

Abstract

No mine operates on an individual basis these days. All mines are entered in the structures of miningand-processing or mining-and-metallurgical integrated works or plants (abbreviated as GOK and GMK in Russia) depending on the degree and stadiality of mineral processing. Put it otherwise, any mine is a division inside a larger production-and-finance organization. Such integration in the mining industry is not sectorial but vertical. Most of the vertically integrated mining companies have to ensure sustainable development in the conditions of depleted economic reserves, poorer mineral quality and deeper level mining. In this respect, this article addresses options of sustainable development in underground mining with the available advanced geotechnologies. The trending underground mining technologies, equipment and their application ranges are described. The analysis of sustainable development in mineral mining in the light of advanced geotechnologies allows picking up the sound and widely applicable underground mining technologies and equipment, as well as enables various environmental concerns to be solved. The mining system term transformation and modern interpretation as an ensemble of basic and auxiliary production methods to be applied within certain structural concepts in individual extraction units of the subsoil is one of the most critical attributes of the successful transition to a new technological paradigm. The activities which enhance sustainability of underground mineral mining, listed in the article, are the component of the new technological paradigm and ensure complete usage of georesources of the Earth’s interior.