Maintenance and Operation of High Capacity Underground Mining Machinery
Modern high capacity underground mining machinery is a complex of mechanical, electrical and hydraulic components which have greatly increased capability over similar components of mining machinery of ten and even five years ago. Looking into the future I feel certain in stating that there will be changes equally great in the coming five and ten […]
Influence of Block Caving upon Adjacent Mine Openings
The stress distribution around single and multiple underground openings has been determined both from theory and from photoelastic laboratory model studies. These determinations require certain simplifying assumptions: The rock is elastic homogeneous, and isotropic; the opening or openings are in an infinite medium, are subjected to plane stress or strain, and are not affected by […]
Bucket Wheel for Open Cast Mining
In deep strip mines the job of moving overburden may be so much bigger and more costly than the removal of coal or ore that the operation is often called dirt mining. Constant improvement in stripping machines and techniques of using them is needed to offset rising costs and to increase production in mines that […]
Undercut and Fill Mining
Undercut-and-fill- mining is a method developed by the International Nickel Company to deal with abnormal-pillar mining conditions at one of its mines. Results have been such -that its use has been extended to normal pillar recovery operations in other mines of the Company as a replacement for conventional square-set pillar mining. It is anticipated that […]
Rotary Percussion Rock Drilling
“Rotary percussion” implies two types of energy, rotary and percussion. Into these categories fall rock drills of varying sizes. The larger ones drill above 6″ diameter holes; the medium size, 2 ¾-” to 4 ½” holes; and the smallest, 1 ¼” to 2″ holes. Essentially, the larger holes are drilled with down-the-hole drills using tri-cone […]
Factors Affecting the Angle of Slope in Open-Cast Mines
The problems of slope stability in open-cast mines are examined. A criterion, the instantaneous stripping ratio, is suggested for use in the design of pit slopes and as an index of control at all stages of the exploitation of the ore body. This criterion may also be related to safety and to the maximizing of […]
Ammonium Nitrate Blasting Agents
The situation of The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited, or Cominco, may be somewhat unique in that the Company is not only a manufacturer of ammonium nitrate, but as a mining company is a major user of its own product. This situation has resulted in highly successful application of ammonium nitrate-oil explosives. […]
Remote Control of Longwall Operations
It is truly remarkable how the image of longwall as a method of mining has changed. Today the world looks on longwall in the hope that it can produce the next really big break through in productivity. Three correlated machinery developments have made this possible, but it is not only the machinery developments, interesting though […]
Rock Drillability
Costs of boring holes in rock have always been a major item in mineral exploration, development, and extraction and in rock excavation in industries other than mining. Efforts to reduce the costs have been made by the drilling industry for many years. Rock drillability studies were started at the Twin Cities Mining Research Center in […]
Pneumatic Stowing – Backfilling Technique
Pneumatic stowing was first introduced in longwall mining in the middle twenties. Since that time it has advanced through many stages of development, particularly abroad, which have greatly improved its efficiency and contributed to its growing use. Pneumatic stowing originated in coal mining but has also been adopted in metal mining. Pneumatic Conveying of Stowing […]