Substantiation of strength of the filling mass by taking a blast effect into account for the room-and-pillar methods

Abstract

The development of the uranium ore bodies at the ore mines of PJSC «Priargunsky Industrial Mining and Chemical Union» (PJSC «PIMCU») by room-and-pillar method as high as a pillar between the levels (60 m) without fill, as a rule, leads to the fall of the adjoining rock, to the strong contamination of the ore and to the high yield of the oversize pieces of the barren rock. A longstanding industrial and theoretical research shows that the sizes of the self-sustaining rock escarpments at the ore mines of PJSC «PIMCU» in the solid mass of trachydacites, conglomerates, sandstones, felsites are equal to 20-40 m. Moreover, the sizes of the self-sustaining rock escarpments depend to a great extent on the intensity of fracturing of the adjoining rocks. The stable size of the escarpment does not exceed 5-10 m for the rocks with the size of a jointing up to 0.05 m. Consequently, timely performance of the filling operations of the worked-out space of the chamber is important. However, the question then arises: which characteristic strength should the filling mass have? The calculations of the characteristics of the filling mass in compliance with the reference guide «Shaft filling operations» show underestimated values of the characteristic compressive strength of the fill (1.4 MPa) for the room-and-pillar method, which leads to the increase of the ore contamination by the fill and provokes the additional costs for refilling of the volumes of the rock fall. On the basis of the Russian experience of using of the consolidated fill for the development of the ore bodies of 15 m thickness by chamber method the strength of the fill is taken as 3-5 MPa under the resultant value of the static stresses without taking into account the character of the dynamic loading stresses induced by the sequence blasthole ring initiating in a chamber. Overestimating the characteristic strength of the filling mass results in the high consumption of the cementing materials. On the basis of the theoretical research the authors suggested the theoretical dependence of calculation of the characteristic strength of the filling material with respect to compressive stresses of the fill induced by the blasting operations. The process of designing of the filling mass with the zones of diverse strength for the room-and-pillar extraction with the consolidated rock fill is proven to be economically reasonable. The bottom zone of the solid mass should have high strength (3-4 MPa), and the strength of the upper zone should be up to 2-2.5 MPa.