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International Journal of
Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrmms
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 11 October 2011
Received in revised form
8 June 2012
Accepted 17 August 2012
Available online 23 October 2012
Sanshandao gold mine, located at the east coastline of Bohai Sea in the Shandong Province, is the rst
subsea metal mine in China. Since the mining activities are carried out under sea, it is of vital
importance to maintain the stability of the crown pillar and to keep the sea water out from the
excavations. In this paper, the minimum required thickness of crown pillar is determined based on 3D
numerical modelling and analysis. A realistic geometric subsea gold mine is modelled by integrating
the usage of SURPAC and FLAC3D. The numerical analysis is carried out by FLAC3D, in which the
inuences of sea water pressure as well as mining sequences have been considered. The distributions of
the principal stresses, displacements, plastic zones and pore pressures in the crown pillar are obtained
by simulating the cut-and-ll stoping method at different excavation levels (above level 115 m). The
eld displacement observation shows that the vertical deformation rate of crown pillar is smaller than
0.023%. It reveals that the reserved safety factor is about 1.43 when using cut-and-ll stoping method
from level 165 m to 115 m in the subsea gold mine. The mining activities may extend to level
95 m according to the numerical analysis results. A four-year-eld practice shows that the numerical
analysis is helpful to determine the minimum crown pillar thickness in the challenging subsea
gold mine.
& 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Subsea gold mine
Numerical modelling
Crown pillar
Cut-and-ll stoping method
Safe exploitation
1. Introduction
With the depletion of mineral resources in near surface
ground, mining exploitation in challenging environments such
as at great depth and under sea water has become an inevitable
trend all over the world. There are plenty of mineral resources
along and around the coastlines in China, where the total length
of coastline is over 32,000 km. Therefore, it is imperative to carry
out studies on rock mechanics-related problems with regard to
the safe exploitation of subsea minerals. A key question for subsea
mining is to determine the minimum required thickness of crown
pillar and to keep the sea water out from mining excavations. The
research in this eld is relatively scarce except the Norwegian
experience on subsea tunnels in the Nordic countries and recently
in China [17]. Nilsen [8], Dahlo and Nilsen [9], Li et al. [4,5] have
discussed the stability problem and the minimum thickness of the
rock cover in subsea tunnels. However, the Norwegian experience
in subsea tunnels cannot be directly applied to subsea mines
because subsea mining is technically more complicated than
subsea tunnel construction. The size of mining stope is usually
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
2. Engineering background
Sanshandao gold mine is located at the Sanshandao special
industrial zone in Laizhou city, Shandong Province, China. It is on
the east coastline of the Bohai Sea. The mining area is about
29 km north of Laizhou city and 45 km west of Zhaoyuan city. Via
the Provincial Road S304, the mine is connected with the G206
National Road at about 16 km to the east, and it is also connected
43
Fig. 1. The geological prole of Xinli Zone at Sanshandao gold mine along the 31# exploration line.
44
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
Fig. 2. Cut-and-ll stoping method adopted between level 400 m and 165 m (unit: m). Notation: (1) laneway; (2) stope-connection laneway; (3) barrier pillar;
(4) reinforced concrete oor pillar; (5) tailing lling; (6) ventilation shaft; (7) draining well; (8) steel rod; (9) rock bolt; (10) panel pillar.
realistic geometric orebody and mining sequences into consideration, is used to determine the minimum crown pillar thickness at
the Xinli Zone of the Sanshandao Subsea gold mine. The inuence
of the sea water pressure above the mine has also been considered in the numerical model. The main controlling factor is
attributed to the tensile failure zone in the crown pillar, which
may lead to instability of mining infrastructures and then inrush
of sea water into the mining excavations.
3. Preliminary study
Some representative rock samples were selected from the
mine dumps in the subsea gold mine, which included: (1) Phyllitic
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
45
Fig. 3. Some prepared rock specimens: (a) natural dry specimens for shear test; (b) water saturated specimens for shear test; (c) natural dry and water saturated
specimens for compressive test and Brazilian test and (d) shear angle in a rock shear test.
s NS PS cos a f sin a
t QS PS sin af cos a
)
1
where N is the total normal force; Q is the total shear force; S is the
shear surface area, which is equal to the cross-section area of the
cubic specimen; P is the maximum load when the specimen fails
under shear test; f is the friction coefcient between the cylindrical
roller and the upper and lower platen, which can be assumed to be
zero in the roller-support system.
According to Eq. (1), a series of values of shear stress t and
normal stress s can be obtained under different shear angles.
Based on the MohrCoulomb criterion (t c stan f) and linear
regression method, the cohesion (c) and internal friction angle (j)
of the tested rocks can be obtained consequently.
The testing results of the strength and deformability of the
three representative rock formations are listed in Table 1. The
testing results in Table 1 are obtained from four different tests.
The density (r) is measured from cubic rock specimens prepared
for shear test. The uniaxial compressive strength (sc), Youngs
modulus (E), and Poissons ratio (n) are obtained from uniaxial
compressive tests on long cylindrical rock specimens. The tensile
strength (st) is measured from the Brazilian test on short
cylindrical specimens. The shear strength associated with cohesion (c) and internal friction angle (j) are obtained from shear
test by using the best linear curve tting method according to the
MohrCoulomb criterion. The number of samples used, the
standard variation, and the determination coefcient for each
test type are also listed in Table 1.
Visual observation shows that the SgJ rock specimens contain
more visible cracks than the SgJH rock specimens do, while few
visible cracks can be observed in the Zg rock specimens. The
testing results reveal that the hanging wall rock (SgJ) has the least
uniaxial compressive strength, the least stiffness and the
least shear strength, while the orebody rock (SgJH) has the least
46
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
Table 1
Mechanical properties of intact rock from the three representative rock formations.
Location
Hanging wall
Rock formation
SgJ
Rock condition
Dry
Saturated
Orebody
SgJH
Dry
Saturated
Footwall
Zg
Dry
Saturated
a
b
c
Density [6]a
r (kg/m3)
sc (MPa)
E* (GPa)
2706
(76)b
2677
(28)
2709
(14)
2711
(33)
2635
(20)
2628
(7)
71.26
(18.36)
41.27
(14.94)
80.87
(14.60)
62.08
(16.41)
126.95
(27.56)
79.53
(21.19)
13.44
(3.90)
9.22
(2.87)
14.73
(1.87)
11.63
(1.73)
17.10
(3.55)
15.73
(2.67)
st (MPa)
c (MPa)
j (1)
0.20
(0.04)
0.21
(0.02)
0.24
(0.05)
6.24
(2.19)
8.22
(2.36)
4.91
(0.27)
3.70
(0.88)
8.54
(2.85)
10.09
(0.61)
11.44
{R2 0.839}c
7.18
{R2 0.919}
21.45
{R2 0.946}
17.11
{R2 0.991}
42.77
{R2 0.922}
39.29
{R2 0.885}
30.6
33.9
32.6
33.7
36.9
36.8
Table 2
Data structure of the four tables in the data sheets.
Table name
Drilling table
Measurement table
Geological table
Mineral grade table
Drill
Drill
Drill
Drill
hole
hole
hole
hole
number;
number;
number;
number;
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
47
Fig. 4. Visualization of drill holes in SURPAC (a) XOZ cross-section representation of drill holes and (b) Au grade of ore samples and the corresponding rock type in two
typical drill holes.
very large model and contains 345,983 zones. Since the present
study is concentrated on the mining activity carried out above
level 165 m, the size of the numerical model is then reduced to
a bottom left corner (X94384 m, Y 40469 m, Z 205 m) and
top right corner (X95052 m, Y40863 m, Z 10 m). The
reduced numerical model, which is 668 m in X direction, 394 m
in Y direction and 195 m in Z direction, contains 199,047 zones.
The entire numerical model and the geometry of mining infrastructure of stopes and pillars are shown in Fig. 7. According to
the design above level 165 m, the mining stope is 100 m in
length, 10 m in height and 36 m in width. The panel pillars are of
4 m 4 m cross section with 12 m 12 m spacing. The 5 m thick
barrier pillar is separated at a distance of 100 m.
48
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
Fig. 5. 3D visualization of the orebody at the Xinli Zone at Sanshandao gold mine in SURPAC (a) 3D view and (b) Projection of the XY base plane.
Judge the reiteration of gridpoints number and write gridpoints into the model file by
the command: G n Xn Yn Zn, where n is the number of gridpoints
Inquire gridpoints of each zone and write zone information into the model file by the command:
Z B8 m P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8, where m is the number zones
Write the group information for the zones by command: GROUP name range id il iu, where
name is the group name; il and iu are the lower and upper limits of zone number respectively
Import the file into FLAC3D by the command: import grid and generate the numerical model in
FLAC3D
Fig. 6. Flow chart illustrating the compilation of the linkage program STOF.m between SURPAC and FLAC3D.
where shmax , shmin and sz are the maximum horizontal stress, the
minimum horizontal stress and the vertical stress (MPa), respectively;
H is the depth of the measurement point in meter. The initial stresses
in the model are given by Eq. (2). The in-situ stress measurements
reveal that the maximum principal stress (s1 shmax) trends about
3251 with an almost zero plunge, while the minimum principal stress
(s3 shmin) trends about 1451 with an almost zero plunge. The
middle principal stress (s2 sz) is in an almost vertical direction.
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
49
Fig. 7. Numerical model of the Xinli Zone and surrounding rock masses in FLAC3D (a) Entire model: 1770 m in X direction, 850 m in Y direction and 440 m in Z direction
and (b) the mining infrastructure (stopes and pillars).
sci
where s01 and s03 are the maximum and minimum effective
principal stresses at failure; mb is the value of the HoekBrown
constant m for the rock mass; s and a are constants which depend
upon the rock mass characteristics, and sci is the uniaxial
compressive strength of the intact rock pieces. The values of
these constants should be determined by statistical analysis of the
results of a set of triaxial tests on carefully prepared core samples.
The inuence of blast damage on the near surface rock mass
properties has been taken into account in the 2002 version of the
Hoek-Brown criterion as follows [37]:
GSI100
mb mi exp
4
2814D
GSI100
s exp
93D
50
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
1 1 GSI=15 20=3
e
e
2 6
It can be found that the GSI values have great inuence on the
mechanical parameters of the rock mass, which also proves that
the in-site joint surveys are very important for the numerical
modelling analysis. In the present study, the calculation parameters from a typical GSI value of 50 are used. It should be
pointed out that if the in-site joint conditions become worse
which lead to a GSI value less than 50, the calculation parameters
of the modelling should be adjusted and the modelling results
may be different. In order to take into consideration of the
inuence of groundwater, the mechanical parameters based on
the water saturated condition are conservatively used since these
values are less than those under natural dry condition.
The MohrCoulomb failure criterion with a tension cut-off is
adopted for the rock mass and backll in the numerical modelling, which is
s
1 sinjm
1 sinjm
f s s01 s03
7
2cm
1sinjm
1sinjm
f t s03 stm
10
where Fs and Ft are the safety factors under shear failure and
tension failure, respectively. If Fs o1 or Ft o1, then shear failure
or tension failure occurs in the corresponding rock zone of
the model.
The permeability coefcient (k) of the rock mass was determined by the steady-state water ow method on eight cylindrical
rock specimens containing natural cracks under a triaxial compressive machine. The permeability coefcients of the three
representative rock types are also listed in Table 3. The maximum
values of the permeability coefcients, which are 13.5 10 7 m/s,
10.3 10 7 m/s and 3.3 10 7 m/s for hanging wall, orebody
and footwall rock masses, respectively, are used in the numerical
analysis in FLAC3D. It should be pointed out that since the sea mud
layer has a very low permeability coefcient (k5.13 10 10 m/s),
a 3 m thick layer of low permeability coefcient in the hanging wall
was used to represent this layer below the sea water in the model.
Table 3
Calculation parameters of rock masses from RocData 3.0 and backll in the numerical analysis.
Material
s3 (MPa)
GSI
scm (MPa)
stm (MPa)
Em (GPa)
cm (MPa)
jm (1)
r (kg/m3)
k (10 7m/s)
1.4
0.2
1.210.3
0.2
0.24
2635
0.33.3
1.4
0.2
0.20
2677
7.4
Orebody (saturated)
1.8
0.2
0.21
2710
5.8
Footwall (saturated)
2.2
0.2
0.24
2628
1.8
Filling
34.1
37.3
39.8
38.3
41.4
43.5
45.0
47.8
49.5
32.1
35.5
38.4
37.4
40.6
43.0
44.3
47.1
48.9
38.7
2709
2.2
0.37
0.52
0.81
0.60
0.88
1.42
1.02
1.56
2.67
0.32
0.42
0.60
0.54
0.77
1.19
0.97
1.47
2.48
0.19
0.21
Footwall (dry)
3.20
5.70
10.13
4.48
7.97
14.17
5.06
9.00
16.00
2.62
4.66
8.29
4.05
7.17
12.80
5.06
9.00
16.00
0.23
1.413.5
0.2
0.08
0.17
0.38
0.14
0.31
0.68
0.24
0.53
1.17
0.05
0.10
0.22
0.11
0.23
0.52
0.22
0.49
1.08
0.20
2706
1.8
3.28
4.27
5.65
6.73
8.72
11.47
16.54
21.28
27.63
2.35
3.04
3.99
5.69
7.36
9.64
15.12
19.46
25.28
2.1
0.20
Orebody (dry)
40
50
60
40
50
60
40
50
60
40
50
60
40
50
60
40
50
60
0.17
2100
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
51
Table 4
Excavation and backll stage in each mining sequence and corresponding variation indexes in the numerical model.
Mining stage
Mining sequence
Z elevation (m)
Subsidence (mm)
d (%)
kf (%)
Note
First stage
Excavate
Fill 1
Excavate
Fill 2
Excavate
Fill 3
Excavate
Fill 4
Excavate
Fill 5
115 to 105
115 to 105
105 to 95
105 to 95
95 to 85
95 to 85
85 to 75
85 to 75
75 to 65
75 to 65
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
8.6
8.9
10.1
10.4
12.0
12.2
14.5
14.8
17.0
17.2
0.009
0.11
0.012
0.15
0.016
0.22
0.023
1.03
0.033
1.25
Second stage
Third stage
Fourth stage
2
3
4
5
-10 m
Fifth stage
-0.3
-0.3
-0.6
-0.9
-0.6
-0.9
-1.2
-1.2
0
Z direction
-1.5
-1.5
-1.8
-1.8
-2.1
-2.1
-2.4
-2.7
-205 m
-3.0
-3.3
-3.6
40863 m
Y direction
-10 m
40469 m
-2.0
-2.0
-3.0
-3.0
Z direction
-4.0
-4.0
-5.0
-5.0
-6.0
-6.0
-7.0
-8.0
-205 m
-9.0
-10.0
40469 m
Y direction
40863 m
Fig. 8. Contour diagrams of the principal stresses at the cross section of X 94,784 m after excavating and lling of all the ve stages from level 115 m to 65 m. (a) The
maximum principal stress (s1, unit: MPa) and (b) the minimum principal stress (s3, unit: MPa).
52
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
-10 m
-12 .5
.0
-1 0
- 7 .5
-15.0
-12 .5
-1 0
.0
- 7 .5
.5
-205 m
-2
-5 .0
-2
Z direction
- 5 .0
11
.5
40863 m
Y direction
-10 m
40469 m
-1 0.0 -15 .0
-12 .5
5
-7 .
- 5 .0
-1 2 .5
-15 .0
- 1 0 .0
- 7 .5
-2. 5
Z direction
-5 .0
-2. 5
-205 m
40469 m
Y direction
40863 m
Fig. 9. Contour diagrams of vertical displacement at the cross section of X 94,784 m after backlling of the stopes. (a) Excavating and lling the 4th step from level
85 m to 75 m and (b) excavating and lling the 5th step from level 75 m to 65 m (displacement unit: mm).
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
53
Tension zones
(failure past)
Elastic zones
Tension zones
(failure past)
Tension zones
(failure now and past)
Elastic zones
Fig. 10. Development of plastic zones on the seabed surface of crown pillar in the numerical analysis: (a) excavating the 3rd step from level 95 m to 85 m and
(b) excavating the 4th step from level 85 m to 75 m.
54
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
40800
40800
40700
40700
40600
40600
40500
40500
94400
94500
94600
94700
94800
94900
95000
94400
40800
40800
40700
40700
40600
40600
40500
40500
94400
94500
94600
94700
94800
94900
95000
94400
40800
40800
40700
40700
40600
40600
40500
94400
94500
94600
94700
94800
94900
95000
94500
94600
94700
94800
94900
95000
40500
94500
94600
94700
94800
94900
95000
94400
94500
94600
94700
94800
94900
95000
Fig. 11. Contour diagrams of pore pressure distribution after each corresponding excavation stage reaching (a) level 115 m; (b) level 105 m; (c) level 95 m; (d) level
85 m; (e) level 75 m and (f) level 65 m. (Pore pressure unit: MPa.)
12
13
7. Conclusions
A cut-and-ll stoping method is successfully used in the rst
subsea gold mine (Sanshaodao gold mine) in China. By integrating
SURPAC and FLAC3D, a realistic geometric numerical model has
been built based on the geological information of drill holes. The
X. Li et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 57 (2013) 4256
55
Fig. 12. Field deformation observation: (a) plane-view layout of the observation boreholes in laneways at level 165 m and (b) vertical displacement curves of crown
pillar obtained at the four boreholes A, B, C and D by 3-point borehole extensometers.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the nancial supports
from the 973 Program (no. 2010CB732004), the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (no. 50934006 and 11102239), and
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