Abstract

NAPIER, J.A.L.  and  MALAN, D.F.. Simulation of time-dependent crush pillar behaviour in tabular platinum mines. J. S. Afr. Inst. Min. Metall. [online]. 2012, vol.112, n.8, pp.711-719. ISSN 2411-9717.

It has been established that significant time-dependent stope convergence may occur over time periods of hours and days in certain hard-rock gold and platinum mines. The source of this time-dependent behaviour appears to be associated with both preexisting discontinuities and with mining-induced fractures that form near the stope face. These induced fractures may be associated with blasting processes and may also be formed in response to high stress concentrations in the unmined regions immediately ahead of the stope face. In shallower platinum mining operations, time-dependent behaviour is, however, observed to be much less marked unless some form of specific mining-induced fracturing occurs. One particular case of considerable interest is the time-dependent behaviour that is found to be associated with the formation and deployment of crush pillars. The purpose of the paper is to present a simple limit-equilibrium computational model of this behaviour that is sensitive to both the formation sequence and the size of planned crush pillars in a mine layout. This model provides a useful means to optimize the sizing of crush pillars, and at the same time may be used to identify potentially hazardous circumstances in which pillars may not crush in a stable manner.

Keywords : crush pillars; pillar behaviour; pillar failure; simulation..

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