Non-Explosive Mining Systems for Hard Rock Mines

Non-Explosive Mining Systems for Hard Rock

Mines

(Deutsche Version dieser Seite)

Project responsibility Prof.Dr.-Ing. Dr.h.c.mult. F.L. Wilke

at TUB Dr.-Ing. J. Skrzyppek (until September 1992)
Dipl.-Ing. F.X. Spachtholz (since October 1992)

Project partners Technical University of Berlin ( Mining Engineering Dept.),

Germany
Diamant Boart SA, Brussels - Belgium
Imperial College of Science and Technology, London - England
Laporte Minerals, England
Project support European Union, Primary Raw Materials Programme
Project No. MA2M-CT91-0053RZJE
Project start June, 1991
Project duration 30 Months
Project state Finished
(August 1996)

Description of research project

Non-Explosive Mining Systems for Hard Rock Mines

by
Dipl.-Ing. Franz Xaver Spachtholz

Index

1. Introduction

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2. State of the art

3. Objectives
4. Partnership
5. Testing
1. Test site location
2. Diamond saw
3. Impact ripper
6. Project results
1. Cutting
2. Impact ripping
3. Possible applications in hard rock underground mines
7. Research activities after end of project
8. Conclusions
9. Links to other research projects of the institute
10. Published papers by TUB
11. Addresses of project partner

Introduction
The common mining method in hard rock underground mines is drilling and blasting. But explosives are
unstable by nature and may be caused to explode dangerously. Also there is a lost waiting time after the
blast for smoke clearing. This forces the mine to be cyclic and inefficient in its use of other expensive
equipment. Much waste energy is expended in fracturing the rock surrounding the excavation. As a
result surface or mine damages can occur. Therefore, time and money must be spend on rock support.
These are some reasons to develop systems which do not require explosives for breaking.

State of the art

To date, roadheaders have been the main alternative to drilling and blasting techniques for development.
But in general, only rock with a compressive strength of up to 120 MPa is cuttable with roadheaders and
the maximum wearing factor (Schimazek) for rock to be cut economically is 0.5 N/mm.

The Tunnel Boring Machine has seen little application by the mining industry, largely because they are
restricted to circular profiles which are not ideal for haulage applications.

A considerable amount of research and development time and money has been put into mobile mining
machines like the Mobile Miner with discs mounted on the periphery of a thin wheel and the Continuous
Mining Machine with 4 undercutting discs mounted on rotating radial swung tool arms. But these
machines are constructed only for headings. Besides, all of the a.m. machines cannot utilise rock
properties like jointing and layering.

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There are numerous other methods of breaking like thermal, chemical, electric and water-jet systems.
But most of them have not been tested for anything other than their rock breaking capability, no attempt
has yet been made in many cases to try them in a mine.

For the reasons described above, there was an incentive for the Commission of the European
Communities to develop a combined underground hard rock breaking system with the use of impact
ripper as primary freeing machine and diamond saw as secondary freeing machine.

Objectives
The primary objective of this research project was to develop an underground hard rock breaking system
with the use of diamond wire saw and impact rippers. The research partners investigated the
improvements in the efficiency (performance and costs) of breaking rock. An increasing efficiency
should be reached when additional free faces are provided be means of diamond cutting tools. Theories
of diamond sawing and impact ripping should be developed. Conceptual designs of both equipment and
new mining methods based on the identified technology were proposed.

Partnership
The project was led by the Department of Mineral Resources Engineering, Imperial College of Science,
Technology and Medicine, an university department with considerable research expertise in non-
explosive mining methods and mine design. The other partners were the Institut fr Angewandte
Geowissenschaften I, Fachgebiet Bergbaukunde of the Technische Universitt Berlin, who is
experienced in mechanised mining systems and in mine design research, Diamant Boart S.A., one of
worlds leading diamond tool manufacturers and Laporte Minerals plc., Milldam Mine, an underground
fluorspar mine in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire, England.

During project execution, Imperial College concentrated on the development of the theories of diamond
sawing of hard rock and on the in-situ trials of diamond wire saws underground at Laporte Minerals.
Laboratory sawing tests were carried out at Diamant Boart's pilot station in Brussels. Researchers from
the Technical University of Berlin concentrated on the in-situ trials of impact ripper underground at
Milldam Mine and on the investigation and evaluation of the performance of impact rippers in hard rock.
The influence of additional free faces were investigated concerning kerf width, depth and position. With
this information conceptual design of mining and heading techniques were made.

Testing
Test site location

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Milldam Mine, one of Laporte Minerals' Glebe Mines is located near Stoney Middleton in Derbyshire,
England, within the Peak District National Park. Fluorspar mineralization is mostly surrounded by
limestone. The workable depth of vein is usually about 100 m. Veins can vary in width between 1.5 and
12 m over relatively short strike length. The in-vein sublevel stoping method originally proposed for
Milldam Mine was seen to be unsafe due to the incompetence of the vein and the minor hardness of the
fluorspar. Furthermore, due to blasting vibrations the overlying weak shale strata had collapsed in a
number of places with two deleterious effects: mixed with the ore it had rendered the mill flotation
process inoperable and the collapse had caused subsidences holes in the sensitive landscape. In order to
provide the necessary raw material in future times a non-explosive mining system must be developed.

Diamond saw
The general specifications of diamond wire used for these tests are as follows:

electroplated diamond beads: f 10 mm x 8.5 mm long, on f 5 mm steel cable, synthetic diamond grit
size: 40/50 US mesh, pitch: 31.5 mm (32 beads/meter), spring spacers and copper joints.

During the site trials, a Pellegrini Televar TDV 55 diamond wire sawing machine was used to cut free
faces prior to extraction to support the impact ripper work. Site trials of diamond wire saws underground
involved also cutting kerfs, between the two production levels, along the footwall and/or the
hangingwall of the orebody for the future mine layout (underhand cross-cut with filling) to avoid
dilution. Also a raise was developed such as the ventilation raises or ore passes. The cut raise material
was fallen down and broken and was loaded with a front end loader. The effects of feed speed and wire
speed on sawing rates (cm2/min) were studied through a series of test conditions and observed power
consumption rates.

Impact ripper
The in-situ tests were realised with an impact ripper which combines the Webster Miner 2000 and the
Krupp hammer HM 560 CS and several different bits (pyramidal moil point, flat chisel, profile chisel,
blunt bit). The hydraulic hammer had an impact frequency of 850 blows/min which was adjusted to the
hydraulic system of the Webster machine with a working pressure in the hydraulic circular of 170 bar to
give a maximum single impact energy of 1700 J.

The performance of impact ripper was tested in the stope access drives. Three drives with an excavated
archetype cross-section of 13 m2 had already been mined through the vein with conventional method.
There was the scope to elongate these drives for more than 3 m into the limestone hanging wall.
Depending on the properties of rock the impact ripper had to work to faces without artificial free faces,
with vertical and horizontal borehole perforations and to artificial fractures created by Pentaflex 100
detonating cord between the boreholes. A fourth drive with a rectangular section was prepared in the
compact footwall (limestone 150 MPa) with a horizontal diamond wire saw cut (1.2 m above the floor

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level) to which the impact ripper could break.

Project results
Cutting
Based on theoretical investigations and laboratory testing the concept of R-C (Cutting Rate - Production
Cost) curve, which is a very promising concept for rock cutting, was developed for given combinations
of rock material and sawing tool. It is clear that sawing conditions giving a very short tool life will be
uneconomical because of high tool costs. On the other hand, the use of very low sawing rates to give a
long tool life will also be uneconomical because of the low production rates. The R-C curve represents
the true nature of machining performance in relation to the cutting mechanism, wear mechanism, the
interaction of operating parameters, machining tool and the rock material.

Furthermore, a theoretical tension prediction for the electroplated diamond wire saw was developed.
This prediction (equation) will enable the analysis of how different parameters affect the wire tension.
Parameters regarded were e.g. adhesive factor between the wire and packed groove surface of drive
pulley, mean radius of the cutting locus, diameter and length of the diamond wire beads, number of
diamond beads in cutting locus simultaneously, sawing strength of rock and friction coefficient between
the diamond beads and rock.

Laboratory tests showed the wear of a diamond segment is caused by the plowing (cutting) of the
diamond particles on the rock which induces a higher cutting temperature and the impact of sawing
thrust, which induces a higher shock wave.

As regards the cutting efficiency, an average sawing rate of 8.5 m2/h was achieved underground in hard
limestone (in the fourth drive) and the maximum cutting rate achieved was 10 m2/h. These figures are
comparable to the performance of diamond wire sawing in stone quarries. When sawing the hangingwall
of the orebody, the average wire sawing performance was 13.1 m2/h and the maximum sawing rate was
15.4 m2/h.

Impact ripping
The impact ripper had to work mostly in hard limestone with an average uniaxial compressive strength
of 90 MPa. The highest strength was 150 MPa in the drive with a horizontal diamond wire saw cut. For
a working time underground of 390 min in an eight hour shift a drifting rate of nearly 1 m/shift res. 13
m3/shift could be reached with an average performance of freeing of 2.1 m3/h in limestone. This
compares well with the performance of impact rippers in German hard coal mines. In heading gate roads
kept on the line the rock normally is less hard and layered and an operational free face is determined by
seam thickness and cutting depth of the seam winning machine.

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The performance of freeing is a function of the working position. It was observed that the performance
while working at the main cross section is nearly twice as much as the performance while profiling.

The performance of freeing is also a function of the kind of bit used. Supported by horizontal and
vertical free faces at the heading face with the flat chisel (penetrating breaking) a 1,5 higher performance
(4,3 m3/h) was reached as ripping with the blunt bit (impact breaking).

As a result of in-situ performance tests an empirical equation to predict production rates using this
technique was developed: The performance in headings with X additional, artificial free faces is (X + 1)
times higher than the performance without such free faces.

It is considered that it is necessary to reduce the profiling work by sawing the sidewalls. In addition, it is
necessary to have free faces like a pattern in the hard compact rock of the main cross section with a
vertical and horizontal distance of 1,5 m in maximum. The tests have shown that a slot with a thickness
of 1 cm might be enough. Therefore, it is to notice that the compressive waves should be reflected at the
free faces in terms of the influence of impact breaking. In addition, the width must be enough for a
curved move of the rock due to the influence of penetrating breaking. The depth of free faces mainly
results from the depth of effect of the bit of the hydraulic hammer which is in the range of 30 to 50 cm.

The personnel operating the impact ripper was not as experienced as that typically found in a German
hard coal mine where ripping is routine and considerable operator experience is gained. Missing
experience was particularly evident in terms of slewing and positioning the hammer at an appropriate
position. During the in-situ tests the slewing time was 20 seconds in average, in German hard coal mines
the time for slewing takes not more than 7 seconds in average. It is likely that with more experienced
operators the performance of freeing could be doubled.

With these in-situ tests it could be shown that an increase of performance of freeing for the Kerf and Rip
mining method depends on geometry of kerfs and the experience of the operator. The investigation of
the influence of the performance level of the hydraulic hammer was not an objective of this project.

Possible applications in hard rock underground mines

It was found that the diamond wire saw-impact ripper system is an effective means of production in
stopes where the slots are cut between two sub-levels. Equally, the system will be economical while
producing slots along the whole length of development headings if the geometry allows for access ahead
of a heading. In most cases, however, this is unlikely.

Therefore, a system where diamond circular saw-impact ripper combination for development work and a
diamond wire saw-impact ripper combination for stope production is used to mechanise the whole
production is proposed. The position of the free faces could be reconsidered from advance to advance
while working with a circular rock saw. This might be of great interest because geometry as well as rock

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and formation properties of vein ore deposits can change between short distances significantly.
Therefore, the amount of artificial free faces could be reduced. Experiences in the Magog shale mine
Felicitas in Schmallenberg, Germany has shown that the handling circular rock saws with a diameter of
1.5 m for producing slots with a depth of 50 cm is not a serious problem in small mines

The slightest amount of artificial free faces will be reached when there is an operational free face just
like in impact ripper headings in hard coal mines. To reduce the amount of artificial free faces a heading
with an inclined face should be possible. Starting from the first inclined face the new contrary second
inclined face will be developed after several partial advances. The ripper work will be supported by
kerfs parallel the inclined face of the heading.

Another possibility to reduce the amount of artificial free faces should be the application of cut and fill
mining methods. While horizontal stoping the operational horizontal free face is given after sandfill has
consolidated and shrunk. While vertical stoping the operational horizontal free face is given because
after loading 2 galleries one upon the other will be open.

Research activities after end of project

At the end of the research project in November 1993 the results were so promising that investigations
should continue at the Institut fr Angewandte Geowissenschaften I, Fachgebiet Bergbaukunde of the
Technical University of Berlin.

After demonstration of the applicability of the Kerf and Rip mining method the future invetigations have
to follow two main objectives: It must be investigated how the performance of freeing could be
increased by the construction of a machine and it must be shown that this new technology can be an
economical substitute for drilling and blasting.

The performance of freeing could be increased e.g. by the application of a heading machine with two
booms, one for the hammer and one for the circular rock saw. Lost times for driving and installing two
single machines for the hydraulic hammer and the circular rock saw or the lost changing time of saw and
hammer (if there is only one carrier with one boom for saw and hammer) could be avoided. In addition,
the capital costs and the operating costs for one machine should be less than for two machines.

For cost and performance estimation of such a combined heading machine it is to notice that the
performance of the ripping machine could be improved by additional free faces. But while working with
the combined machine the ripping time decreases with the number of free faces. And in the same way
the time for cutting the free faces increases. This is due to the fact that the unproductive relative free
face utilisation capacity u (m2 produced free face/compact m3 rock per advance) increases as well.
Therefore, to optimise the performance of the combined machine a minimum amount of free faces must
be correlated with a performance as high as possible of the hydraulic hammer. This means the times for
both operations must be minimised.

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With this basic information a performance and cost estimation for both systems "drilling and blasting"
and "Kerf and Rip" will be done. Based on the in-situ tests at Milldam Mine a horizontal (without
inclination) heading with a cross section of 13,5 m2 should be developed in hard, compact limestone
with an average compressive strength of 100 MPa. A front end loader will be used for loading. Support
is not necessary. As a result of this estimation the performance while drilling and blasting is 1,5 times
higher than for the Kerf and Rip system. The daily costs (capital and operation) for both systems are
comparable.

But the productivity of the mechanical breaking system will be improved by a better operator
experience, utilising natural free faces like jointing and layering and producing operational free faces
(heading with inclined free face, cut and fill mining methods with filling). Besides, to increase the
machine drifting rate a continuous loading is possible with a combined supporting unit of impact/saw
and loading machine (like a gathering arm loader of roadheaders) with a central conveyor through the
supporting unit. With this improvements a comparable performance of both systems "drilling and
blasting" and "Kerf and Rip" should be possible.

This conclusion must be verified during practical applications of the Kerf and Rip mining method. The
research results of the Institut fr Angewandte Geowissenschaften I, Fachgebiet Bergbaukunde can be
given to interested applicants.

Conclusions
A non-explosive mining system for underground hard rock mines was developed by researchers of the
Imperial College (London), the Institut fr Angewandte Geowissenschaften I, Fachgebiet Bergbaukunde
(Berlin) and engineers of the diamond tool manufacturer Diamant Boart (Brssel) and Laporte Minerals
Milldam Mine (Sheffield) supported by the European Union. One of the most common alternatives to
conventional drilling and blasting techniques in hard rocks will be the hydraulic hammer supported by a
circular rock saw as a secondary freeing machine.

During the in-situ tests at Milldam Mine the impact ripper (Webster Miner 2000, Krupp hydraulic
hammer HM 560 CS) had to work mostly in compact limestone with an average compressive strength of
90 MPa (max. 150 MPa). The average performance of freeing compares well with the performance of
impact rippers in German hard coal mines. The best performance of 4.3 m3/h res. 1.9 m/shift was
reached with a flat chisel and a rectangular pattern of free faces. In hard limestone (150 MPa) an average
wire performance of 8,5 m2/h was achieved with the diamond wire saw Pellegrini Televar TDV 55. This
is comparable to the performance of diamond wire sawing in stone quarries. Investigations for
optimising kerf geometry and position and for utilising operational free faces were made.

After the end of the project research continued to improve the performance of Kerf and Rip mining by
construction modifications and to investigate whether the new system will be comparable (cost and
performance) to drilling and blasting. The research results of the Institut fr Angewandte

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Geowissenschaften I, Fachgebiet Bergbaukunde can be given to interested applicants.

Links to other research projects of the institute

Innovative Design of Diamond Wire Saw Systems for the Optimisation of the Recovery of Value and
Volume of Saleable Dimension Stone from Granite Quarries
CEC Brite EuRam II
BRE2.CT94.0977
BE-7691

Operational Conditions for Continuous Mining Systems in Hard Rock Open Pit Mines
CEC Brite EuRam II
BRE2.CT93.0345
BE-6044

Published papers by TUB

Wilke, F.L., Spachtholz, F.X.: Development of a non-explosive mining system for underground hard
rock mining. Proceedings of the International Conference Geomechanics, 28.-30. September 1993,
Hradec, Ostrava, Czech Republic, A.A. Balkema, 1994, page 339/400.

Durucan, S., Shaw, C.T., Spachtholz, F.X., Wilke, F.L., Thoreau, B., Bramley, J.V.: Non-explosive
mining systems for hard rock mines. Publishable Final Summary, Primary Raw Materials and Recycling
R&D Programmes 1990-1992. Mining Technologies, EUR 15779 EN, Volume 2, CEC, DG XII, 1995,
page XIX1/XIX11.

Wilke, F.L., Spachtholz, F.X.: Development of an innovative mining system for hard rock mines using
continuous breaking techniques. Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Mine Planning
and Equipment Selection, Istanbul, Turkey, 18.-20. October 1994, A.A. Balkema, 1994, page 193/198.

Addresses of project partner

PROJECT COORDINATOR:

Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine,

Royal School of Mines
Prof. C.T. Shaw
Dr. S. Durucan
Prince Consort Road

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London SW7 2BP, UK

Tel.: 0044 71 589 5111, Ext. 6401
Fax: 0044 71 589 6806
E-mail: C.Shaw@imperial.ac.uk

PARTNERS:

Technische Universitt Berlin

Institut fr Angewandte Geowissenschaften I
Fachgebiet Bergbaukunde
Prof.Dr.-Ing.Dr.h.c.mult. F.L. Wilke
Dipl.-Ing. F.X. Spachtholz
- Sekr. EB 11 -
Strae des 17. Juni 135
10623 Berlin / Germany
Tel.: 0049 30 314 24139
Fax: 0049 30 314 21107
E-mail: wilke@bg.tu-berlin.de
E-mail: spachtholz@bg.tu-berlin.de

Laporte Minerals Cavendish Mill

Dr. J.V. Bramley
Dipl.-Ing. N. Hardy
Stoney Middleton
Derbydhire S30 1TH, UK
Tel.: 0044 433 630 966
Fax: 0044 433 631 826

Diamant Boart S.A.

Dipl.-Ing. B. Thoreau
Avenue du Pont de Luttre, 74
B-1190 Brussels
Belgium
Tel.: 0032 2 348 32 11
Fax.: 0032 2 348 34 12

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