Rock Breakage
Session 9
Rock Breakage in Mining
Jian Zhao
Rock Breakage in Mining
Session Contents
• Mine Life Cycle and Rock Breakage
• Drilling for Mineral Exploration
• Surface Mine Rock Excavation
• Underground Mine Rock Excavation
• Other Earth Resources Extractions
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Mine Life Cycle and Rock Breakage
Mine Life Cycle and Processes
Mine life cycle involves planning, design and on-site
activities, with processes from mineral prospecting
to post-mine reclamation.
Planning
Design
Prospecting Development Exploitation Rehabilitation
Exploration Construction Production Reclamation
Mine Life Cycle and Rock Breakage
Mineral Prospecting and Exploration
Stage Procedure Timeline
a. Review existing information (maps, photos,
literature, old mines, etc)
Mineral
Prospecting
b. Prospect and explore (geophysical survey,
and
probing drilling and sample coring)
Exploration 3-8
Searching c. Test and analyse (using samples from core years
and defining drilling)
mineral
d. Evaluate and decide (locate potential deposit,
deposits
estimate tonnage grade and value, make
decision)
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Mine Life Cycle and Rock Breakage
Mine Development and Construction
Stage Procedure Timeline
a. Acquire mining rights (purchase or lease), if not
done in stage 2
Mine
Development b. File environmental impact statement,
technology assessment and permits
Opening up
2-5
the deposit c. Construct access roads and transport system
years
for
production d. Locate surface plant and construct other
facilities
e. Excavate overburden, sink shafts, and excavate
access tunnels
Mine Life Cycle and Rock Breakage
Mine Exploitation and Production
Stage Procedure Timeline
a. Excavate and mine ore deposits
Mine • Surface mines (open pits and strip)
Exploitation • Underground mines (room-and-pillar, open
stoping, longwall, block caving, etc) 10-30
Large scale
production years
of ore b. Transport excavated ore to processing plant
c. Crush, mill, and process to extract minerals
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Mine Life Cycle and Rock Breakage
Mine Rehabilitation and Reclamation
Stage Procedure Timeline
a. Remove plants, building and other mining
infrastructure
Rehabilitat-
ion b. Restore waste dumps and tailings
1-10
Post-mining years
restoration c. Stabilise open pit and stope to safety
of site
d. Restore the mine site, including plantation,
landscape and environment
Mining Process and Rock Breakage
Rock Breakage Activities in Mine Life Cycle
Prospecting Development Production Restoration
Exploration Construction Exploitation Rehabilitation
Drilling and Mechanised or Mechanised or Possible re-
coring for drill-and-blast drill-and-blast excavation for
probing and excavation of excavation of slope and
sampling shafts and ore rock, rock stope
tunnels, or crushing and stabilisation
overburden milling and safety
removing
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Drilling for Mineral Exploration
Probing by Percussion Drilling
• Rapid drilling, suitable to quick and shallow
subsurface probing.
• Similar percussion drilling machine for blast hole.
• No sample. Assessing material by crushed
fragments and powder.
• Detect change of materials, cavities, soft or hard
materials.
• Drilling operator is important.
Drilling for Mineral Exploration
Coring and Sampling
• Drillhole is cored, with smooth wall.
• Vertical, inclined and horizontal directional
drilling.
• Core sample obtained,
used for testing.
• Field measurements in
boreholes.
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Drilling for Mineral Exploration
Outputs of Exploration Drilling and Coring
• 2D and 3D subsurface ground profile.
• Ore deposit geometry and grade.
• Mineralogy, mechanical and engineering
characteristics.
• Engineering planning and design parameters.
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Surface Mine Rock Excavation
Open Pit Mine
Sloped pit with benches around. Rock excavation
Open pit
is mainly by drill-and-blast.
Soft coal seam excavation is by dragline and
Strip
shovel.
For open pit mine, blast
production and pit slope
stability are the main
engineering concerns.
They are both designed
through drill-and-blast. © cnet.com
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Surface Mine Rock Excavation
Open Pit Excavation Charging Blasting
Open pit mine production
Drilling Mucking
involves surface excavation
by drill-and-blast.
Stabilisation
Rocks are usually excavated
by vertical bench blasting
using industrial explosives.
Drilling is done by top
hammer percussion drilling.
© Mikrotron GmbH
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Surface Mine Rock Excavation
Open Pit Slope Stability
Pit slope stability is related
to the slope excavation.
In addition to optimal
production, pit stability can
be improved by designing
appropriate slope angle and
performing smooth blast for
the slope.
Hoek 2000
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Underground Mine Rock Excavation
Underground Mine Excavation Methods
Mining Method Excavation Method
Drill-and-blast, roadheader and
Room and Pillar
continuous miner
Sublevel Open Stoping Drill-and-blast
Cut and Fill Stoping Drill-and-blast
Shrink Stoping Drill-and-blast
Longwall Shearer
Sublevel Caving Caving induced by blast
Block Caving Caving induced by blast
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Underground Mine Rock Excavation
Room-and-Pillar
Excavation
Roadheaders and
continuous miners are
used for low to medium © Komatsu
strength ores.
Drill-and-blast is used for
strong rocks. To excavate
large or high caverns,
heading is blasted first
and followed by bench. © Atlas Copco
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Underground Mine Rock Excavation
Stoping Mining Methods
Drill-and-blast is the primary technique for sublevel
open stoping, cut-and-fill, shrink and Vertical Crater
Retreat stoping methods.
Ore rocks
are broken
by blasting,
sometimes
Sublevel Open Stoping ming
used long © Atlas Copco
and big
holes.
Vertical Crater Retreat mining
© Atlas Copco
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Underground Mine Rock Excavation
Longwall Mining
Rock breakage in longwall
mining involves the rock
cutting by the shearer and
rock caving behind. © Caterpillar
Cutting coal seam (soft rocks) © mining.com
by shearers (drum cutters) is
a relative established
technology.
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Underground Mine Rock Excavation
Caving Methods Sublevel Caving mining
© Atlas Copco
Sublevel caving uses design
drill-and-blast layout to
optimise rock breakage and
draw.
Block caving uses under-
cutting and blast to initiate
gravity rock breakage and Improved SLC layout
caving progress.
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Underground Mine Rock Excavation
Underground Mine Accesses
There are extensive
underground tunnel
network for transport and
access, as well temporary
access for production
(e.g., drifts and under-
cuttings). They are
excavated by drill-and-
blast or by mechanised © Atlas Copco
methods.
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Other Earth Resources Extraction
Oil and Gas Well Drilling
Oil and gas productions use wells from surface to
the oil and gas reservoirs.
Drilling are by rotary machines and bits (tricone and
PDC), for vertical and
horizontal directional © borregaard.com
drillings to km depth.
Hydrofracturing can be
applied to enhance
production and recovery.
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Other Earth Resources Extraction
Drilling and Hydrofracturing for Shale Gas
Deep downhole is followed by © energuide.be
horizontal drilling into the
shale rock. Fracking fluids
containing sand, water and
chemicals are then pumped at Drilling
high pressure into the drilled
holes to open up fractures in Fracking
Shale
the rock, enabling the trapped
gas to flow into collection
wells.
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Other Earth Resources Extraction
Drilling and Hydrofracturing for Enhanced
Geothermal Energy
Deep drilling: well pairs are
drilled into hot hard rocks
(mostly granite).
Fracking: rock between the two
wells by hydrofractured.
Heat energy extraction: circulate
fluid through the fractured hot
rocks for heat transfer. © climatescience.org
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Rock Breakage in Mining
Session Summary
• Mine Life Cycle and Rock Breakage
• Drilling for Mineral Exploration
• Surface Mine Rock Excavation
• Underground Mine Rock Excavation
• Other Earth Resources Extractions
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