Geomechanical justification of geotechnical situation in coal extraction with highwall mining system

Abstract

One of the most effective approaches to reduction of coal loss in open pit within ultimate limits is extraction of coal reserves from the pit walls and bottom using the highwall mining systems. The high efficiency of the method is conditioned by minimal capital cost and reuse of the existing geotechnical infrastructure. On the other hand, the safe application of this approach depends on the rock mass quality. In mining practice, the major application area of the highwall mining systems is pitwall rock mass of damping jointing. In this connection, this paper aims to estimate influence of rock mass quality on stability of pit wall and underground openings (rooms and pillars). The set problem is solved by the finite element modeling of geomechanical situation for standard conditions of an open pit coal mine. The novelty of the research consists in more comprehensive inclusion of rock mass lithology, jointing, deformation and strength characteristics, initial stress state and structural features of technology in the problem solution.

Stability Analysis of Multi-Layer Highwall Mining: A Sustainable Approach for Thick-Seam Open-Pit Mines

“…It leads to a permanent waste of resources, which impedes the progression of green mining. Highwall mining can effectively exploit the resources [8] below the end-slope and extend the service life of the open-pit [9,10], which is essential for its sustainable development and for the practice of green mining. There are two types of methods for highwall mining.…”

Failure Mechanism and Stability Control Technology of Slope during Open-Pit Combing Underground Extraction: A Case Study from Shanxi Province of China

“…Restricted by factors such as mining technology and stripping ratio, the mining scope of surface mines is limited to the upper section resources of the entire ore body, and resources not suitable for surface mining at depth are completed by underground mining means [1][2][3]. For horizontal or near-horizontal coal mines with miscellaneous coal seams, it is economically unreasonable to open-pit mine the deeper resources, and a combination of open-pit mining method and underground extraction method is generally used [4][5][6][7]. This form of mining is also known as the method of open-pit combing underground extraction (OPUG) [8][9][10][11][12].…”