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Room and pillar mining was one of the earliest methods used, [3] although with significantly more manpower. The room and pillar system is used in mining coal, gypsum, [4] iron, [5] limestone, [6] and uranium [7] ores, particularly when found as manto or blanket deposits, stone and aggregates, talc, soda ash, and potash. [8]
Retreat mining is the removal of pillars in the underground mining technique known as room and pillar mining. In the first phase of room and pillar mining, tunnels are advanced into the coal or ore body in a rectangular pattern resembling city streets. Pillars are left between tunnels to support the weight of the overburden. The first phase is ...
It has a grid of 16-foot-high (4.9 m), 40-foot-wide (12 m) tunnels separated by 25-foot-square (7.6 m) limestone pillars created by the room and pillar method of hard rock mining. [1] The complex contains almost 10.5 miles (16.9 km) of illuminated, paved roads and several miles of railroad track.
Room and pillar : Room and pillar mining is commonly done in flat or gently dipping bedded ore bodies. Pillars are left in place in a regular pattern while the rooms are mined out. In many room and pillar mines, the pillars are taken out starting at the farthest point from the stope access, allowing the roof to collapse and fill in the stope.
Once room and pillar mines have been developed to a stopping point limited by geology, ventilation, or economics, a supplementary version of room and pillar mining, termed second mining or retreat mining, is commonly started. Miners remove the coal in the pillars, thereby recovering as much coal from the coal seam as possible.
Room and pillar mining often leads to retreat mining, in which supporting pillars are removed as miners retreat, allowing the room to cave in, thereby loosening more ore. Additional sub-surface mining methods include hard rock mining , bore hole mining, drift and fill mining, long hole slope mining, sub level caving, and block caving .
Mining takes place using the room and pillar system. [8] Salt is removed by drilling holes filled with ammonium nitrate, an explosive, [10] [6] [9] then transported by conveyor belt and cut before it is lifted to the surface. [6] Pillars are left behind for support and allowed to flex in a technique called "yielding pillar". [8]
When the ore body is more or less horizontal, various forms of room and pillar stoping, cut and fill, [4] or longwall mining can take place. In steeply-dipping ore bodies, such as lodes of tin, the stopes become long narrow near-vertical spaces, which, if one reaches the surface is known as a gunnis or goffen. [1]