Caving 2018, Vancouver, Canada 297
REBOP–FLAC3D hybrid approach to cave modelling

Fuenzalida, Miguel; Pierce, Matthew; Katsaga, T.

doi:10.36487/acg_rep/1815_20_pierce

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…To support cave mining at New Afton Mine, a hybrid FLAC3D-REBOP modelling approach has been used (Fuenzalida et al 2018). This hybrid approach allows prediction of the limits of the geomechanical zones defining the cave as a function of production.…”

Section: Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling considerations for cave compaction at New Afton Mine

Martinez¹,

Fuenzalida²,

Kamp³

2022

Caving 2022: Fifth International Conference on Block and Sublevel Caving

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New Afton is a block caving mine located 10 km outside of Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. The mine operates two lifts, Lift 1 and B3, with two separate caves on Lift 1, the West Cave (WC) and the East Cave (EC). Lift 1 and B3 production levels are located approximately 600 m and 760 m below the ground surface. New Afton has a unique combination of geometric geotechnical conditions when compared to other cave mines, including: 1) a narrow and long footprint; 2) faulted and poor ground areas; and 3) a high horizontal induced stress environment.During mining of the EC, where a majority of the poor rock mass conditions exist, after the cave was propagated through to surface, local areas of the footprint experienced severe damage and high tunnel convergence, which led to some areas being difficult to access and routinely mine. Because of this, the caved and fragmented material located on top of these drawpoints has experienced a high degree of caved rock compaction over time.New Afton was able to successfully rehabilitate much of these areas while observing compacted cave material, but in addition, a Front Cave Recovery Level (FC) was designed 20 m below a section of the EC production level with the purpose of mining the reserves below and recovering supplemental reserves left by the drawpoints.Cave propagation within compacted cave material requires additional consideration when being used in modelling. A methodology to consider compaction within the EC was proposed using the IMASS model. Assuming two different degrees of compaction for the pre-existing EC, the FC was then assessed with a coupled modelling approach using FLAC3D and REBOP to simulate both the draw/flow and caving propagation to determine abutment stresses and cave loads induced on the production level as material was drawn. It was found that having different degrees of compaction significantly affected the predicted caving rate and cave geometry, affecting ultimate recovery.

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Section: Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling considerations for cave compaction at New Afton Mine

Martinez¹,

Fuenzalida²,

Kamp³

2022

Caving 2022: Fifth International Conference on Block and Sublevel Caving

Self Cite

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Coupling Geomechanical and Gravity Flow Models to Obtain More Representative Flow Simulations and Air‐Gap Risk Identification in Caving Mining

Castro,

Oyarzo,

Gómez

et al. 2024

Num Anal Meth Geomechanics

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The extraction and propagation of caving are complex phenomena involving the breaking of the rock mass, the formation of a column of broken material, and the extraction from the column base. Geomechanical modeling in cave mining commonly uses approaches to model the rock mass as a continuous material, while discontinuous modeling is frequently used for the column of broken material. However, it remains complex to include all mechanisms in a single model. Therefore, to achieve a better representation of ore breakage and extraction in caving mining, this work couples FLAC3D, a continuous finite volume tool, with FlowSim, a discrete tool based on cellular automata, to determine the air gap volume. The methodology first defines the height of caving propagation and the cave back with a tool that models solid rock mass in a continuous manner, which are used to constrain the cellular automata tool that simulates the flow of broken material. The results show that unidirectional FLAC3D‐FlowSim coupling reproduces the generation of cave backs and air gaps in the propagation of caving, rendering the methodology valuable for preliminary estimation of air volumes over fragmented material and the generation of supportive data to control the caving process.

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