Hybrid opencast/underground mining advance in gently dipping coal seams toward peak mine economy

Enactment of new environmental laws on disturbed land reclamation and imposition of charge for natural resources makes land-intensive in-depth and lengthway mining systems with external dumping ineffective. Such mining systems feature serious faults affecting performance of an opencast mine [1]: uneconomic change in the amount of stripping in the course of the main phase of mining; increase in the haulage distance with deeper level opencast mining; total elongation of mining front and transportation routes during the main phase of mining; withdrawal of considerable land for external dumping; extreme disturbance of land; environmental damage; impossibility of disturbed land reclamation during opencast mine operation; sustained increase in the distance between mining and dumping operations. In hybrid opencast/ underground mining, accessing and preparation of a modular underground mine area enjoys priority over an opencast [2]. In actual practice of hybrid opencast/underground mining, the open cast and underground methods are commonly considered separately. In the meanwhile, an integrated structured approach can help improve productivity of the whole opencast–modular mine area system and reduce coal production cost. This effect is achievable due to the combination of lengthway–crosswise opencast and underground mining of gently dipping coal seams.

Shishkov R. I., Fedorin V.A. Hybrid opencast/underground mining advance in gently dipping coal seams toward peak mine economy. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2021;(3):4957. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236-1493-2021-3-0-49-57.

R.I. Shishkov¹, Graduate Student, e-mail: rshis@yandex.ru,
V.A. Fedorin¹, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Professor,
¹ Mining Institute, Federal Research Center of Coal and Coal Chemistry of Siberian Branch of RAS, 650065, Kemerovo, Russia.

R.I. Shishkov, e-mail: rshis@yandex.ru.

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