Author

• Dr. Rimas Pakalnis

Introduction

Mining is a dynamic process which requires in excess of thousands of cubic metres of openings to be developed daily over the life of a mining operation. Those openings may be for development and/or production purposes, however all cases must be designed so as to ensure the required behaviour. The site engineer therefore, must design the mine opening or pillars after addressing all issues relevant to the design and assessment of the overall behaviour.

This course is designed to give the operator a design procedure that has been developed in conjunction with academia and practicing operations. This design procedure has been implemented at over twenty underground metal mines around the world. The courses reference numerous authors in the field and apply their findings to arrive at tools for design. The geomechanics design group at the University of British Columbia has been instrumental in developing the design curves presented here along with the direction and sponsorship of CANMET and mining operations throughout Canada. More recently, this course has been augmented by NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health - United States Bureau of Mines) to incorporate case histories from mines in the USA operating within a weak rock mass.

Design Guidelines is the second of two Design for Underground Metal Mines courses by the author. The companion course is Design Parameters.

Design Guidelines employs the input parameters for stress, structure, rock mass characterization, failure criteria and support procedures developed in Design Parameters as the basis for design methods and approaches for mine openings presented in this course.

This course is structured as three parts:

1. Pillar Design Methods
2. Opening Design Based on Stability and Dilution
3. Man-Entry Openings and Cable Support

Content

The course comprises 10 viewing sessions at both summary and text level, plus multiple-choice reviews, and numerous figures, design tables and references. Course duration is equivalent to approximately 12 hours of viewing content.

Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss the derivation and application of empirical pillar design methods for underground openings.
2. Discuss the derivation and application of empirical design approaches for open stopes based on stability and dilution.
3. Discuss the derivation and application of empirical design approaches for man entry openings.
4. Discuss the derivation and application of empirical design of cable support for open stopes.

Duration: 12 Hours

Category: Geotechnics

Level: Advanced