Prospective directions of improving technological schemes of shale formation development under aquifers, providing technical and environmental safety of underground mining works are analyzed. The expediency of using development systems with parameters that ensure the smooth deflection of the undermined massif without the formation of cracks that unite the aquifers is substantiated.
The technologies currently implemented at the Leningrad oil shale deposit are characterized by overstated dimensions of protective pillars, which leads to an understated extraction of minerals from the subsurface. At the heart of these shortcomings is the lack of methods for controlling the processes of displacement and deformation of mining massifs for shallow mines. The depth of mining works in the considered conditions makes 40-140 m. At such shallow depths, application of different excavation technologies inevitably leads to deformation of the underworked rock massif, including the earth surface. The regularities of such deformation depend on the degree of mineral extraction from the subsurface, determined by the adopted parameters of the development systems. Studying the influence of the technological factors of the mining of the interburden on the state of the overlying rock strata and the earth surface is very difficult and expensive in terms of direct production experiments, which do not have the necessary generality of the results obtained. Such a task, which allows to make the ultimate forecast of the degree of disturbance of the rock massif and the earth surface, is solved by the experimental-analytical method, which can be used for a wide range of initial conditions with a lower cost mechanism of achieving the set goal. This approach makes it possible to create a method for selecting the rational parameters of development systems in the considered geological conditions.
