No abstract

Most of coal is produced from open-cut mines in Southeast Asian countries. However, the conditions of their surface mines are worsening each year: the stripping ratio is increasing, approaching economic ratio and the regulation of environmental protection. To meet the demand for coal, underground mines have to be developed in the near future. Under these circumstances, the development of new coal mines from open-cut highwalls are being planned in Southeast Asian Countries. Moreover, some of the Southeast Asian mines have thick coal seams. However, if the conventional mining systems and designs introduced in US, Australia and European Countries are applied, several geotechnical issues can be expected due to the mines' weak geological conditions. From these backgrounds, this paper proposed a punch multi-slice mining system with stowing for thick coal seam under weak geological conditions and discussed its applicability and suitable design by means of numerical analysis.