SURFACE MINING METHODS

Jiro Yamatomi, University of Tokyo

SUMMARY: An overview of surface mining methods and practices as commonly employed in modern surface mining operations are
presented. The description includes a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of surface and underground mining as well
as brief explanations of open pit, open cast, placer, and solution mining operations.
1. Surface Mining Methods
After a mineral deposit has been discovered, delineated, and
evaluated, the most appropriate mining method is selected
based on technical, economic, and environmentally accountable
considerations. The first step in selecting the most appropriate
mining method is to compare the economic efficiency of extraction of the deposit by surface and underground mining
methods. This section reviews surface mining methods and
practices.

methods. Quarrying of dimension stone and highwall mining

are specialized and less frequently used methods, and will not
be looked at in detail in this report.
Aqueous extraction in most cases involves the use of water or a
liquid solvent to flush minerals from underground deposits,
either by hydraulic disintegration or physicochemical dissolution. Aqueous extraction includes:
Placer mining
Solution mining
Placer mining is intended for the recovery of heavy minerals
from alluvial or placer deposits, using water to excavate, transport, and/or concentrate minerals. Solution mining is employed
for extracting soluble or fusible minerals using water or a lixiviant.

2. Classification of Surface Mining Methods

Extraction of mineral or energy resources by operations exclusively involving personnel working on the surface without provision of manned underground operations is referred to as surface mining. While an opening may sometimes be constructed
below the surface and limited underground development may
occasionally be required, this type of mining is essentially surface-based. Surface mining can be classified into two groups on
the basis of the method of extraction; mechanical extraction, or
aqueous extraction.
Mechanical extraction methods employ mechanical processes
in a dry environment to recover minerals, encompassing the
specific mining methods of:
Open pit mining
Open cast mining
Quarrying of dimension stone
Highwall/auger mining
Open pit and open cast methods employ a conventional mining
cycle of operations to extract minerals: rock breakage is usually
accomplished by drilling and blasting for consolidated materials
and by ripping or direct removal by excavators for unconsolidated soil and/or decomposed rock, followed by materials handling and transportation.
Dimension stone quarrying is quite similar to open pit mining,
but rock breakage without blasting is almost exclusively employed to cut prismatic blocks or tabular slabs of rock. The high
labor intensity and cost associated with cutting stone makes
quarrying the most expensive surface mining method.
Highwall mining is a coal mining method for recovery of outcropped coal by mechanical excavation without removal of
overburden. A continuous miner with single or multiple augers/cutting heads is operated underground and controlled remotely by crew located outside. Augering can be regarded as a
supplementary method for open cast mining in cases when coal
seams in the highwall would otherwise remain unmined (unless
recoverable by underground methods) or when rugged terrain
would preclude economic stripping by conventional surface

3. Open Pit vs. Underground Mining Methods

While most mineral deposits can be mined by either surface or
underground methods, some minerals can only be recovered in
a hybrid manner, usually by initial extracted by open pit mining,
followed by underground methods. Here, a brief comparison is
made with respect to the advantages and disadvantages of various mining methods.
Figures 1a and 1b show histograms of production sizes for
metal mines operated during between 1988 and 1997 in the
western world. Open pit mining is the most common method for
large-scale operations, whereas underground mining is generally the most effective for small-scale operations. Most bauxite,
iron, and copper ore is mined by open pit techniques, lead and
zinc ore are principally extracted by underground mining
methods, and precious metals, particularly gold and most notably in the USA and Australia, tend to be recovered in recent
years from low-grade deposits by surface mining.
Larger mines offer higher productivity and lower operating
costs than smaller mines. Furthermore, open pit mines, typical
of larger operations, have much higher normal productivity and
lower unit operating costs than for comparable underground
mines. However, the productivity and operating cost of an underground mine are heavily dependent on the mining method
employed, the rock conditions, the quality and economic value
of the mineral, and the degree of automation/mechanization
amongst other factors.
Figure 2 shows a comparison of the annual production rates and
productivities of US coal mines. Surface mines have very few
limitations on the operation of large machines with high capacity, whereas underground operations are considerably restricted
by narrow working spaces and rock conditions. Moreover, less
commuting time is required at a surface mine, whereas a much

Figure 2 Change in production and productivity of US coal

mines

Figure 1a Production size distribution of metal mines for the

period 1988 to 1997 in the western world

ployee for open pit mines are superior to those of underground

mines.
The higher productivity for open pit mining equipment also
lowers costs. The necessary underground equipment for maintaining productivity is more expensive on a unit basis capacity
than corresponding open pit equipment. Furthermore, the large
production scale and share number of open pit mines have provided the opportunity for manufacturing open pit equipment in
large numbers, thus reducing production costs even further.
Open pit machinery can also be used for other purposes such as
civil construction, whereas underground mining equipment is
specialized and expensive.
A number of surface mines operate 24 hours/day and almost
365 days/year in order to use open pit machinery for as many
hours as possible, thereby reducing the number of machines
required. In contrast, underground operations are often interrupted by the need for maintenance in addition to
non-productive hours required for commuting and evacuation
from blasting and explosives gases. Consequently, higher utilization of equipments and miners is usually difficult in underground mines, and higher capital per tonne of ore is also required. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for underground miners to be paid more per hour than a worker doing a similar job
on the surface. For these reasons, in conjunction with the better
productivity and time utilization of surface operations, the labor
cost per effective working hour in underground mines is much
higher than on the surface. Underground mines also require
additional energy and expenditure for ventilation, air conditioning if required, transportation to the surface, pumping, and
lighting.
Surface mining is generally considered to provide better recovery, grade control, flexibility, safety, and working environments
than underground mining. Figure 3 shows a comparison of the
total injury rates in US coal mines. The injury rates have declined both in surface and underground mines. However, the
total injuries per one million employee-hours for underground
US coal mines in the last decade is three to four times higher
than for surface mines. The difference between the injury rates
per one million tonnes of coal production further demonstrates
this point underground mining is less favorable and accidents

Figure 1b Processed ore by production rates for open pit and

underground metal mines for the period 1988 to
1997 in the western world

Figure 1c Processed ore by minerals for open pit and underground metal mines for the period 1988 to 1997 in
the western world
longer time is consumed by transportation in an underground
mine because of the typically long distance from the mine entry
to the working stope and face. Thus, more net working hours
are available at surface mines, which results in higher production rates per employee. Therefore, production rates per em-

and the benches are excavated bench-by-bench into the ground.

Individual benches are dimensioned so as to accommodate the
material-handling equipment employed: the bench height is
limited by the reach of the excavators (e.g., a power shovel can
trim a higher bench than a front-end loader or hydraulic excavator), and the bench width must be sufficient to contain most
of the flyrocks generated by bench blasting and provide enough
maneuvering space for excavators and haulage units.
Usually, ore and waste rock is broken up by drilling and blasting. A top hammer drill, down-the-hole drill, or rotary drill
mounted on a tire-wheeled or crawler rig is employed for drilling downholes. Ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO), slurries, and emulsions are widely used as explosives. These are
loaded by hand or pumped into the blastholes, if available in
liquid or powder forms, and then detonated (electrically or otherwise). The loading machines popular in open pit operations
are power shovels (also known as electric rope shovels), hydraulic excavators (shovel or backhoe versions), and wheel
loaders (front-end loaders). Ore and waste rock are transported
by trucks to the milling plant via primary crushers and waste
disposals, respectively. Open pit mining by its very nature normally requires the haulage of moderate to large amounts of
waste and ore out of the pit for relatively long distances at steep
grades. For more efficient and economic transportation,
in-pit/mobile crushers, crushing ores in the pit, and trolley-mounted trucks, directly driven by electricity, are attractive
considerations.
Figure 5 is an illustration of a typical limestone quarry in Japan.
Most Japanese limestone quarries are located in mountainous
regions, and limestone is mined downwards level by level from
the top of the deposit, forming benches and rock slopes
(bench-cut mining). The most distinctive feature of the
bench-cut is the utilization of subvertical orepasses for transportation of blasted limestone. Most limestone quarries in Japan
employ bench-cut mining to accomplish highly mechanized and
efficient production, as well as for improving operational safety.
However, this technique is disadvantaged by major technical
issues, including the need for caution regarding the recovery of
the rocks on the periphery of the working floors to avert rock
falls, the need for stabilizing measures and careful observation
to prevent collapse of the final slope after the quarry benches
are abandoned, and reclamation of the berms of the final slope
by planting grasses, bushes and trees on imported fertilized

Figure 3 Injury rates at US coal mines

Figure 4 Typical open pit operation

in underground mines tend to be more serious than for surface
mines.
From an environmental point of view, however, surface mines
normally cause extensive and more visible impacts on the surrounding landscapes than underground mines, primarily due to
the huge amounts of waste and overburden dumped around the
mines and the damage to scenery by the surface operations
themselves. Noise and vibration also may disturb the surrounding environment, and it is necessary to place a safety zone
around the pit to protect people and equipment from flyrocks.
4. Open Pit Mining
Open pit mining is a large-scale method in terms of production
rate and permits the utilization of highly mechanized and mass
production equipment that is capital intensive but labor conserving. In open pit mining, any overburden is stripped and
transported to disposal areas, so as to uncover the mineral deposit. Stripping and mining are conducted on one or a sequence
of benches. A massive deposit, typical of metallic ores, requires
many benches and as a result a pit resembles a roughly circular
pyramid, inverted into the earth, with each successive bench
being cut to a smaller radius to adhere to safe slope angle restrictions.
Figure 4 illustrates a typical open pit operation. After clearing
vegetation and removing topsoil, the operation begins from the
surface. The ore body and surrounding waste rock within the
economic limit are divided into horizontal slices or benches,

Figure 5 Bench-cut mining typical of limestone quarries in

Japan

Figure 7 A dredging vessel

5. Open Cast Mining

Open cast mining, as illustrated in Figure 6, is used mainly for
coal exploitation. The overburden is not transported to waste
dumps, instead being cast or hauled directly into adjacent
mined-out spaces. The main operations thus consist of excavation and haulage (i.e., casting), generally combined in one unit
and performed by a single machine with a long boom mounted
on a revolving table. Casting can be accomplished in part using
explosives (cast blasting). Casting overburden requires specialized boom-type excavators, power shovels, draglines or bucket
wheel excavators, while coal mining is carried out using conventional loading and hauling units.
If the overburden is unconsolidated, breakage by blasting is
unnecessary and boom-type excavators can be used directly to
excavate the overburden. Well-consolidated to hard rock requires drilling and blasting, and ripping prior to excavation
using excavators may be necessary to remove compacted soil or
weak rock.
Open cast mining is concentrated in a relatively small area between the highwall and spoil bank. The highwall is the advancing bank, hosting the coal seams to be mined, while the spoil
bank is a series of piled overburdens cast by boom-type excavators. Mining can be followed immediately by reclamation.
Very little advance stripping is required, and the working space
is open for a relatively short time.

disposal.
The most common methods of placer mining are hydraulicking
and dredging.
Hydraulicking involves the use of pressurized water to excavate
placer deposits and transport materials in slurry form, from
which valuable minerals are usually recovered by sluicing. The
principal hydraulicking machine, a water cannon (hydraulic
giant or monitor) with a pivotable water nozzle attached to the
end of a rigid pipe or flexible hose, issues a jet of pressurized
water (if available) with sufficient energy to disintegrate the
placers and wash loosened boulders and gravel to a sluice, either a natural trough in the ground (ground sluicing) or a
metal/wooden box with riffled bottom to capture heavy minerals settling out of the slurry.
Dredging is the underwater excavation of a placer deposit, usually carried out from a floating vessel. The operation may include processing (wet gravity concentration) and water-disposal
facilities. Several types of dredging are possible, including
bucket-line dredging (Figure 7), dredging using a dipper (shovel,
grab, or bucket mounted on a barge), or hydraulic suction with
an optional rotating cutter.
In Figure 7, placer materials are dug out using an endless train
of buckets to be deposited into a hopper and transferred to a
washing plant. The material from the hopper flows into a rotating screen, where water is sprayed to break up clay and wash
away large debris. The coarse material from the screen fall onto
a conveyor belt (stacker) and is transported from the dredge,
while fine material passing through the screen is usually processed to recover economic minerals by wet gravity concentration, often carried out on board the vessel.

6. Placer Mining
Placer mining, also referred to as alluvial mining, is an aqueous
extraction of heavy minerals from placer or alluvial deposits,
using water to excavate, transport, and separate the economic
minerals. Placer deposits are deposits of unconsolidated sands
and gravels containing minerals that can be liberated easily and
recovered by the action of pressurized water or mechanical and
hydraulic action. Common placer minerals are gold, diamond,
tin (cassiterite), titanium (rutile), platinum, tungsten (scheelite),
chromite, magnetite, and phosphate. Successful operation also
requires an adequate water supply at the required head, adequate space for water disposal, valuable minerals that are sufficiently heavy and amenable to simple mineral processing utilizing differences in specific gravity, and the satisfaction of environmental regulations concerning water quality and waste

7. Solution Mining
Solution mining is the extraction of solid minerals by directly
recovering an aqueous solution of minerals flowing through the
ground or by leaching/dissolving them from the host rock. This
method is applicable to readily soluble evaporite minerals and
metallic ore minerals. The latter usually requires leaching reactions using acids or other chemical lixiviants. Several minerals
are readily soluble in water, forming brines, and recovery of
these fluids represents the earliest applications of solution mining. Solution mining is a major source of numerous water-soluble salts and minerals, including common salt (sodium
chloride), potash, magnesium, lithium, trona (sodium carbonate), and boron minerals.
Solution mining primarily involves leaching and borehole mining, which can also be regarded as surface and in situ leaching,

Figure 6 Open cast mining

soils.

respectively, particularly when applied to the extraction of metalliferous minerals.

Leaching is the chemical dissolution of minerals from host rock,
either an in situ ore deposit or material already excavated and
crushed. The process is basically chemical, but may also involve bacteriological action. Leaching applied to unexcavated
rock is termed in situ leaching, and is achieved by delivering
the lixiviant through boreholes (i.e., borehole mining) drilled
into an undisturbed deposit or onto an ore deposit that has already been blasted or caved specifically for leaching.
Leaching of previously mined materials in dumps, tailings, or
slag piles, is called heap leaching as a variation of surface
leaching. Another variation carried out in vats or tanks is vat
leaching. Surface leaching operations must be practiced in conjunction with conventional open pit or underground mining
operations. Surface leaching techniques are hydrometallurgical
recovering operations as alternatives to conventional mineral
processing, and applicable to mainly copper and gold/silver
deposits. In the case of gold mining, heap leaching is the primary method of beneficiation, whereas it is usually regarded as
secondary/supplemental in copper mining, where leaching is
applied to low-grade ores that must be mined in order to expose
the high-grade ores. In this case, leaching may provide some
additional production that would otherwise not be achieved.
Such supplemental production often has a low incremental cost,
thereby lowering the overall average cost of production.
In situ solution mining or borehole mining is usually a primary
method of recovery, and may be used as an alternative to mechanical excavation (i.e., conventional mining). Most gangue
minerals tend to be insoluble, with the result that they are usually left in place while valuable minerals are dissolved and removed for surface processing. Accordingly, in situ solution
mining can be liberated from mine waste dumps and tailings
impoundments, in particular, when applied to metalliferous and
uranium deposits. However, groundwater contamination may
accompany in situ solution mining, particularly when chemical
reagents are employed as lixiviants.
Borehole mining is carried out in two ways, using multiple
wells or using concentric wells. Concentric wells are used most
notably in sulfur mining by the Frasch process, in which superheated water is injected through the outer annulus of three concentric pipes and used to melt the sulfur to be recovered and
lifted through the middle annulus to the surface with the aid of
airflow blown through the inner pipe.
In multiple-well systems, water or a lixiviant is pumped into the
mineral formation through a series of injection wells and the
pregnant solution returns to the surface through a series of recovery wells to create a low-pressure hydraulic gradient to
properly collect the solution. The injected solution travels
through openings in the ore body and reacts with the minerals,
mobilizing and transporting the metal species in solution.
Sometimes, hydrofracturing is introduced to improve the permeability of the ore formation.
Figure 8 schematically shows in situ leaching for a low-grade
uranium roll-front deposit. A leaching solution (lixiviant), consisting of native groundwater containing dissolved oxygen and
carbon dioxide, is delivered to the uranium-bearing strata

Figure 8 A schematic illustration of in situ leaching of a

uranium deposit
through the injection wells. Once in contact with the mineralization, the lixiviant oxidizes the uranium minerals, which allows the uranium to dissolve in the groundwater. Production
wells, located between the injection wells, intercept the pregnant lixiviant and pump it to the surface. A centralized
ion-exchange facility extracts the uranium. The barren lixiviant,
stripped of uranium, is regenerated with oxygen and carbon
dioxide and recirculated for continued leaching. The ion exchange resin loaded with uranium is then stripped or eluted.
Once eluted, the ion exchange resin is returned to the well field
facility.
In situ leach mining of metalliferous and uranium deposits offers several advantages over conventional mining, including
reduced capital investment, lesser risks of safety and health,
lower energy consumption, minimal disturbance of surface
environments and landscapes, and greater flexibility to adjust
production. Borehole leaching techniques, on the other hand,
have a number of disadvantages: control of leach solutions may
be difficult because of faulting or lack of confining strata above
and below the ore body, lack of appropriate lixiviant for the
contained metal, lack of ability to simultaneously recover more
than one valuable materials from polymetallic deposits, no
means of precisely evaluating the level of recovery of the target
minerals from the deposit, and lower recovery and slower rate
of recovery than conventional processing and surface leaching.
REFERENCES
1) Hartman H.L. ed. (1992). Mining Engineering Handbook,
2nd Ed. 2170 pp., Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and
Exploration, Inc. (Littleton, USA). [A comprehensive
handbook for mining engineering, including general descriptions of mining practices and many case studies. Also
available in a CD-ROM.]
2) Bartlett R.W. (1992). Solution Mining, 276 pp., Gordon
and Beach Science Publishers (Philadelphia, USA). [An
introductory textbook for solution mining, leaching, and
fluid recovery of minerals with extractive metallurgy and
environmental sciences.]
3) Macdonald E.H. (1983). Alluvial Mining, 508 pp., Chapman and Hall (London, UK). [A high-quality reference
book on the geology, technology, and economics of placer
deposits and mining.]

4)

5)

6)

Martin J. W., Martine T.J., Bennett T.P., and Martin K.M.

(1982). Surface Mining Equipment, pp.446, Martin Consultants, Inc. (Golden, USA). [A guidebook for surface
mining equipment such as dozers, scrapers, trucks, loaders,
excavators and drills.]
Hartman H.L. (1987). Introductory Mining Engineering,
633 pp., John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (New York, USA). [A
textbook for introductory mining engineering for undergraduate students with case studies and exercises.]

7)

Stout K.S. ed. (1980). Mining Methods & Equipment, 217

pp., McGraw-Hill, Inc. (New York, USA). [A visual
coursebook for introductory mining engineering programs
for undergraduate students with illustrations.]
Thomas L.J. (1973). An Introduction to Mining, pp.436,
Hicks Smith & Sons. (Sydney, Australia). [An introductory textbook for mining engineering for undergraduate
students with illustrations.]

UNDERGROUND MINING METHODS

Jiro Yamatomi, University of Tokyo
SUMMARY: This section gives an overview of underground mining methods and practices as used commonly in underground mines,
including classification of underground mining methods and brief explanations of the techniques of room-and-pillar mining, sublevel
stoping, cut-and-fill, longwall mining, sublevel caving, and block caving.
1. Classification of Underground Mining Methods
Mineral production in which all extracting operations are conducted beneath the ground surface is termed underground mining. Underground mining methods are usually employed when
the depth of the deposit and/or the waste to ore ratio (stripping
ratio) are too great to commence a surface operation. Once the
economic feasibility has been verified, the most appropriate
mining methods must be selected according to the natural/geological conditions and spatial/geometric characteristics
of mineral deposits. Considerations include:
Spatial/geometric characteristics of the deposit concerned:
the shape, size, thickness, plunge, and depth.
Strength of the hanging wall, footwall, and ore body.
Economic value of the ore and grade distribution within the
deposit.
The selection of underground mining methods is primarily
based on the geological/spatial setting of the deposit. Candidate methods can therefore be chosen and ranked based on
estimated operational/capital costs, production rates, availability of labors and materials/equipments, and environmental
considerations. The method offering the most reasonable and
optimized combination of safety, economics, and mining recovery is then chosen.
Reflecting the importance of ground support, underground
mining methods are categorized in three classes on the basis of
the extent of support required: unsupported, supported, and
caving.
Unsupported methods are essentially naturally or
self-supported and require no major artificial system of support
to carry superincumbent loads, instead relying on the natural
competence of the walls of the openings and pillars. This definition of unsupported methods does not exclude the use of
rock/roof bolts or light structural sets of timber or steel, provided that such artificial supports do not significantly alter the
load-carrying ability of the natural structure. The followings
are considered unsupported methods:
Room-and-pillar mining
Shrinkage stoping
Sublevel stoping
Of the unsupported methods, room-and-pillar mining is employed for extraction of flat-dipping and tabular deposits,
whereas shrinkage and sublevel stoping are applied to vertical
or steeply inclined ore bodies. Shrinkage stoping has in the
past been very popular, particularly in non-coal mining. Gravity can be utilized for ore transportation and broken ore stored
within the stope may function as a working platform and tem-

porary wall supports. It was quite attractive in the period before mechanization became widespread, when small-scale
operations on vein-type deposits prevailed. However, with
rising costs, the scarcity of skilled labors, and the trend toward
mechanization, the method has been largely displaced by sublevel stoping and cut-and-fill. Sublevel stoping will therefore
be the only unsupported methods examined in detail here.
Supported methods require substantial amounts of artificial
support to maintain stability in exploitation openings, as well
as systematic ground control throughout the mine. Supported
methods are used when production openings (stopes) are not
sufficiently stable to remain open during operation, but the
opening required to be held open to prevent caving or surface
subsidence. In other words, the supported class is employed
when the other two categories of methods, unsupported and
caving, are not applicable. The supported class of mining
methods is intended for application under ground conditions
ranging in competency from moderate to incompetent. In the
design of artificial support systems to provide varying degrees
of controlled wall closure and ground movement, an evaluation
of load-carrying capacity of the natural rock structure is a prerequisite. The most satisfactory forms of artificial support are
backfilling/stowing, timbers/stulls, cribs/packs, and hydraulic/frictional props. There are three specific methods in the
supported class.
Cut-and-fill stoping
Stull stoping
Square-set stoping
Cut-and-fill and stull stoping are intended for moderately competent rock, whereas square-set stoping is suitable for the least
competent rock. Supported methods have declined in use since
World War II, primarily because cut-and-fill stoping is the
only method that lends itself to mechanization. Stull stoping
and square-set stoping are infrequently used and relatively
unimportant today, because of excessive labor intensity and
very low productivity, in addition to a scarcity of skilled work
forces and available timber resources. Only cut-and-fill stoping
will be described later in detail.
Caving methods are defined as those associated with induced,
controlled, massive caving of the ore body, the overlying rock,
or both. The exploitation workings in caving methods are designed to collapse, with intentional caving of the ore and/or
host rock. The three major caving methods are:
Longwall mining
Sublevel caving
Block caving

to improve underground climates.

The primary operations required in underground are rock
breakage and material handling. If the target is sufficiently soft
(e.g., coal and rock salt), mechanical excavation utilizing continuous miners, shearers, ploughs/plows, and so on, can be
employed. In contrast, drilling and blasting are usually employed when the ore is too hard for cutting. A drifting jumbo
equipped with one or multiple rock drills is employed for
penetrating horizontal blastholes and used for driving horizontal drifts and inclined ramps as well as production by crosscutting in room-and-pillar mining and cut-and-fill stoping.
Fan/ring/parallel longhole drill rigs are commonly employed
for large-scale production in sublevel stoping and sublevel
caving. Ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO), slurries, and
emulsions are widely used as explosives in mining operations.
The explosive is usually charged by hand if available in cartridge form, or pumped into blastholes for liquid or bulk explosives. The explosives are then fired by electrical or other
means.
The most common equipment for material handling such as
loading and hauling excavated ore are slushers, gathering-arm
loaders, front-end loaders, overhead loaders, Load-Haul-Dump
units (LHDs), and rubber-tired shuttle cars and trucks, as well
as transportation by conveyor, rail, and gravity flow. Ore is
loaded into underground equipment and transferred to orepasses, where the ore is dumped. A drawpoint or chute is usually situated at the outlet of the pass on the lower level, where
the ore is loaded and transported to the underground ore bins
or directly to the main haulage level. Finally, ore is collected
on the main haulage level and transferred to an underground
crusher for size reduction to facilitate transportation by conveyors or skips through shafts.
The auxiliary/supporting operations required underground
include:
Health and safety: ventilation, gas control (particularly in
coal mines), dust suppression, noise reduction.
Ground control: supporting (rock-bolting, timbering, setting
steel arches, etc.), scaling (removing rock fragments from
working roofs).
Power supply and lighting
Drainage and flood control: pump stations and sumps are
usually constructed at the bottom level to collect and drain
water from underground after removing suspended solids.
Maintenance and repair of equipment: underground workshops and warehouses.
In addition, surface facilities such as an administration office,
milling plant, hoist & headframe, electric substation, emergency power generator, air compressor, and tailings pond are
necessary.

Figure 1 Example layout of an underground mine

Longwall mining is used in horizontal, tabular deposits
(mainly coal), while the others have applications in inclined or
vertical, massive deposits, almost exclusively metallic or nonmetallic. Because the exploitation openings are intentionally
destroyed in the progress of mining, the caving class is truly
unique. Rock mechanics principles are applied to induce caving rather than to prevent the occurrence of caving. Moreover,
development openings have to be designed and located to
withstand moving and caving ground. Surface subsidence is
inevitable and must be allowed for in the case of sublevel and
block caving. Production must be maintained at a steady and
continuous level to avoid disruptions or stoppages in the caving activity. Highly advanced mining technology as well as
experienced management are indispensable to a successful
caving operation.
2. Underground Operations in General
Figure 1 shows a schematic mine layout for an underground
mine as an explanation of common mining terms. An inclined
shaft is excavated for transportation of personnel and supplies
in addition to a vertical shaft for hoisting mined ore and a ventilation shaft for enhancing circulation of fresh air with the aid
of a fan. Alternatively, an inclined shaft can be used for main
ore transportation and ventilation, and the vertical shaft can act
as the main thoroughfare for employees and materials. The
functions of inclined and vertical shafts are usually versatile in
mining operations.
Main levels are arranged for main haulage and connection
between underground key facilities. A small number of sublevels may be situated between main levels within a stoping
area for production. Raises and winzes are either vertical or
sub-vertical openings driven between one level and another or
the surface. Raises are driven upward, and winzes are driven
downward. A ramp is an inclined opening connecting levels or
stopes to enable the passage of vehicles and an orepass is a
vertical or sub-vertical hole through which ore is transferred to
lower levels.
If backfilling (to fill mined-out spaces with rock, soil or tailings) is part of the underground operation for improving mining recovery, safety, and mitigating surface subsidence, a fill
raise will be constructed for transporting backfill materials
prepared at the backfill plant on the surface to underground
stopes. If necessary, additional ventilation raises will be driven

3. Room-and-pillar Mining
Room-and-pillar mining is suitable for flat or nearly horizontal
tabular deposits. If the ore bodies are moderately inclined
(>30) it is impractical to utilize tired mobile equipment, resulting in reduced productivity. If the competence of the
hanging wall and/or the ore is insufficient, additional labor is
also required for ground control, which is likely to cut produc-

Figure 2 Room-and-pillar mining

Figure 3 Pillar layouts for room-and-pillar mining

tivity and raise auxiliary costs.
A schematic illustration of room-and-pillar mining is given in
Figure 2. Pillars of original bedrock are left to support rock
pressures and to protect personnel. Drill jumbos are usually
used for driving crosscuts and connecting them. Blasted ore is
mucked and hauled by LHDs. In coal mines, seams are generally large in scale and relatively uniform, and mechanical excavation is also applicable in such cases. Openings are driven
orthogonally and at regular intervals to leave rectangular or
square pillars for natural support, which gives the plan view a
checkerboard-like appearance. It is not uncommon in non-coal
mining for the pillars to be irregularly shaped, sized, and randomly located (Figure 3). The objective in placement of pillars
is to locate them in areas of low-grade ore or waste rather than
follow a systematic mining plan so long as adequate roof support is provided. In the case of a considerably thick deposit, a
fairly high back is liable to degrade the safety of mining in a
single pass, necessitating benching or slabbing (Figure 4).
Partial extraction of a pillar, called robbing, is sometimes
practiced, particularly if the pillars are larger than necessary to
support the back, allowing more ore to be recovered safely.
Room-and-pillar mining is moderately favorable in terms of
productivity and cost. Accordingly, it is appropriate for a large
deposit with relatively low economic value, that is, deposits
where some ore may be left without significant economic impact. The method is also flexible, allowing the production rate
to be adjusted by varying the number of stopes. The method
can also be regarded as selective. Moreover, it requires a less
amount of development. For these reasons, the room-and-pillar

Figure 4 Room-and-pillar mining for a thick deposit

mining is most popular among underground mining methods
and prevailed worldwide.
4. Sublevel Stoping
Sublevel stoping (also known as longhole or longhole open
stoping) is an overhand vertical stoping method, utilizing longhole drilling and blasting carried out from sublevels to break
the ore. The plunge of the deposit must be steeper than the
angle of repose of the broken ore because the method relies on
the downward progression of broken ore through the stope by
gravity to be drawn off on the haulage level.
Sublevel stoping employs fewer temporary supports in the
stopes than the room-and-pillar and shrinkage methods because no personnel are exposed in the stope; drilling and
blasting crews work in the protected sublevel drifts and crosscuts, and loading and haulage teams operate on the haulage
drifts under secured working conditions. Although the stopes
are unsupported, pillars are usually left between stopes, and
occasionally smaller pillars are left within individual stopes.
While ore is being mined and drawn, the stope is essentially
open, which requires the competence of the wall rock and ore
to be sufficient to prevent spalling and ore dilution, as well as
not to generate boulders requiring secondary breakage.
There are two broad versions of sublevel stoping by longhole
drilling; drilling a ring pattern of smaller holes, or drilling a

Figure 6 Vertical carter retreat method

stoping methods, which are essentially self-supporting and
require the least artificial support, also often employ backfilling to recover the remnant pillars after primary mining operations. In addition, for the purpose of controlling subsidence
and the risk of fire, and preventing harmful gases from being
emitted in underground collieries, it is also employed in
room-and-pillar and longwall mining, where it is frequently
called stowing. The functions of filling can be summarized as
follows.
For ground control: it is usually accepted that backfill can
support the overlying rock strata and prevent caving into
openings, and consequently stabilize rock movement and
minimize surface subsidence.
As a working floor in overhand cut-and-fill stoping, and an
artificial roof in underhand cut-and-fill stoping.
Void filling, particularly for old or abandoned mine excavations.
Waste rock and/or tailings disposal with the aim of reducing
the volume of waste disposal and tailings ponds.
Subsidence and fire control
While waste rock from developing works can be used as fill
material, fine-grained tailings from the milling plant are often
employed for cut-and-fill stoping, because the supply of waste
rock is not reliable, depending on the amount of development
being conducted simultaneously. The relatively high compressibility and distribution cost of waste rock is also a factor.
Mechanically placed dry fill, therefore, has been largely replaced by hydraulic fill with higher productivity, lower cost,
and better compressibility. In addition, stoping with hydraulically placed fill lends itself to increased mechanization because of the smoother top surface. Tailings or waste sand is
mixed with water at the backfill plant, which is generally built
close to the milling plant, and the slurry is hydraulically
transported underground through a fill raise or pipelines. The
hydraulic fill is occasionally blended with cement to bond fill
particles together for stronger fill strength and for a harder and
more durable working floor.
An innovative backfill method, paste fill, using total tailings
was developed in Germany in the mid 1980s and has become
accepted around the world in underground mines over the last
decade. Paste backfill has lower water content than traditional
fill, classified fill, which contains relatively small amounts of
silt and finer particles that resist dewatering and consequently
delays solidification. Basically, the finer tailings can be integrated into the paste fill, which also reduces the volume of

Figure 5 Sublevel stoping using ring drilling (left) and parallel drilling with larger and longer blastholes
(right)
parallel series of larger, longer holes, which has become possible with the advent of large-diameter rotary and in-the-hole
percussion drills (Figure 5). The former, traditional drilling
method is being phased out due to the higher productivity and
acceptance of the latter technique for large-scale operations,
where hole deviation is no longer a problem allowing the sublevel spacing to be increased.
The vertical crater retreat (VCR) method can be considered an
improved variation of sublevel stoping (Figure 6). Large parallel holes are similarly used, but the major difference is in
blasting. A horizontal slice is shattered with nearly spherical
charges inserted into the undercut. Holes are charged from the
collar on the sublevel after plugging the opposite end, and all
holes in a stope are detonated simultaneously. Part of the broken ore corresponding to the swelled volume by breakage is
extracted from the undercut through the drawpoints, and the
remainder is left in the stope as a temporary wall support. The
next slice of ore is then blasted.
Sublevel stoping offers high productivity and is suitable for
large and massive ore bodies. However, mining recovery is
limited when leaving pillars are required between open stopes.
Backfilling is usually employed to increase the extraction ratio.
The disadvantages of this method are the reasonably high development costs, the relatively long time and complicated
work required for development, and inflexible/non-selective
nature. It should also be noted that special attention must be
paid to rock breakage in terms of the design parameters of
blasting, such as hole diameter and length, burden, explosives
selection, and powder factor.
5. Cut-and-fill Stoping
Filling or backfilling is a fundamental technique employed in
underground mines in order to improve the ground conditions
and achieve a higher extraction of minerals by filling up
mined-out areas. Cut-and-fill stoping, which involves filling as
a key part in the operation cycle rather than a procedure conducted after mining is completed, is ranked as a major basic
underground mining method and the only method common to
all modern supported mining methods.
However, filling or backfilling is not exclusively used in
cut-and-fill stoping. The room-and-pillar mining and sublevel

operation can be approved as satisfied, moderately good roof

condition is desirable and stope ventilation should be well
designed as well. So that, it is concluded, cut-and-fill stoping
shall exhibit its advantage when applied to fairly valuable
mineral deposits.
Figure 8 schematically shows the underhand cut-and-fill stoping. Underhand cut-and-fill was intended for mining in soft
and weak ground. Horizontal slices of ore are taken from the
top, drift by drift or crosscut by crosscut. Immediately after
drilling and blasting, the driving face newly exposed is timbered and broken ore is removed from the stope. The cycle
will be repeated until the drift head reaches the ore boundary.
On completion of the drifting, steel rods and/or timber mats are
placed on the floor and then the entry of the drift is barricaded
with timbers, wooden plates, waste rocks, and/or bricks. Usually, a bulkhead/barricade acts as a fence to prevent fill materials from running out of the stope and concurrently allows the
fill water to be released from the filled space. Normally, backfill with a higher content of cement is first poured onto the
floor, which is expected to work as an artificial roof when the
lower slice is being mined.
The recovery and selectivity of underhand cut-and-fill are high,
and dilution is low. Ore strength can be weaker than in overhand cut-and-fill stoping. However, the underhand method is
more labor intensive and costly than the overhand method, and
widening the stope span is extremely difficult. The method is
practically limited to mining a valuable ore deposit embedded
in soft, weak rocks with nearly perfect recovery without substantial subsidence.

Figure 7 Overhand cut-and-fill stoping

6. Longwall Mining
Longwall mining is a bulk production method primarily used
for flat coal seams, which are subdivided into large rectangular
panels. A long face of a few hundred meters long is first established across a panel by driving between a pair of head and tail
gates aligned along the sides of the panel. The long face is then
swept to cut coal either in an advance or retreat. The roof is
then completely caved. Figure 9 shows a schematic view of a
longwall mining stope for a flat-dipping thin coal seam.
Longwall mining of other minerals substantially differs from
practices in coal mines in terms of rock breakage, loading, and
roof supports, mainly due to the hardness and abrasiveness of
other minerals.
The characteristics of coal exploitation by longwall mining are

Figure 8 Underhand cut-and-fill stoping

material sent to the tailings pond and consequently elongates
its service life. The lower water content also facilitates solidification and backfill strength with smaller amount of cement is
greatly enhanced for a shorter term, which results in simplified
bulkheads/barricades for dewatering.
Cut-and-fill stoping is normally an overhand mining method in
which horizontal slices of ore are excavated and replaced with
backfill (Figure 7). The timing of fill placement in cut-and-fill
stoping is critical to the success of the method. Incorporation
of filling into the production cycle represents a period of discontinuity in the cycle of operations: building bulkheads/barricades, extending raises, moving equipment, placing
the fill, and allowing the fill to drain and solidify all take considerable time. Paste backfill, however, has begun to change
minefill technologies and overall underground mining systems.
Cut-and-fill stoping can realize fairly selective and flexible ore
extractions with excellent recovery and dilution even in irregular and discontinuous ore bodies. By utilizing mechanization productivity can be remarkably improved, but still lower
and the mining cost is comparatively higher than those of sublevel stoping. In addition, although the overall safety of the

Figure 9 Longwall mining

summarized as follows.
Continuous mining machines, plows or shearers, are employed to mechanically cut coal. Generally, shearers incur
higher capital and running costs but are more productive.
Armored face conveyors collect and transport the fragmented coal through the face to the head gate. They are mobile and flexible, and can be pushed by the support frames
and advanced to follow the face after cutting.
Hydraulic-powered self-advancing frame support systems
are installed along the longwall face to support the roof and
maintain the open space for cutting machine and operators.
After each cutting cycle, the support frames and face conveyors are advanced hydraulically and the roof immediately
behind the supports is allowed to cave in.
The use of elaborate and expensive roof support systems
makes longwall mining a supported mining method. However,
longwall mining also belongs to the caving class, because it
permits the immediate roof to cave safely, thus releasing excessive overburden loads and minimizing damage. Closely
bedded and moderately weak roofs are favorable. The caved
area is called the gob, and the gob is occasionally stowed to
avoid surface subsidence.
The panel width and length are usually dependent on the size
and shape of the coal seam, geological features, location of
surface facilities, and operational parameters such as available
capacities of transportation, ventilation, and mining equipment.
The panel is mined either in an advancing or retreating manner; the former advances the face from the main entry towards
the far end of the panel, while the latter starts mining at the far
end and terminates at the main entry. Retreat mining is recommended and regarded as preferable in view of mine safety,
although it requires longer period for development prior to
production.
The advantages of longwall mining for coal are the high productivity, low mining cost, high production rate, and lower
labor intensity. Concentrated operation permits efficient supervision and good control of safe working conditions. The
disadvantages are high capital and moving costs for production
equipment and systems, in addition to inflexibility in changing
layouts and operational parameters.

Figure 10 Sublevel caving

Figure 11 Extraction curve for sublevel caving

directly below the upper crosscuts. Blastholes are then drilled
in a fan pattern from one sublevel to penetrate vertically up to
the next sublevel.
Mining operations such as driving crosscuts, production drilling, charging, blasting, and mucking are conducted on different sublevels independently. Development and exploitation are
carefully planned such that adjacent sublevels are engaged in
sequential unit operations. For example, mucking broken ore is
in progress on sublevel 1 in Figure 10, explosives are being
charged into blastholes on sublevel 2, a production drill rig is
fan drilling on sublevel 3, and a drifiting jumbo is heading a
crosscut on sublevel 4. As the withdrawal of the blasted ore
proceeds, caved waste rocks gradually shift into the spaces
between the ore fragments and mix. Eventually and unavoidably, waste rocks are observed at the mucking point and subsequently barren rocks increase in quantity as the ore is extracted.
The key to successful operations is how to control the breakage and collapse of overlying rocks and the gravity flow. Extremely careful controls must be employed in drawing the ore
to avoid excessive dilution and ore loss. Premature cutoff may
result in poor recovery, whereas delayed cutoff is likely to
cause excessive dilution (Figure 11). The changeover from
mucking to blasting the next round of fan holes is determined
so as to economically optimize extraction.
Sublevel caving is the most systematic of the underground
methods, requiring highly qualified engineering for accurate
drilling, well-designed blasting, and proper drawing and grade
controls. The method can realize reasonably high productivity,
production rates, and recovery without leaving pillars, but
incurs high development and moderate to high mining costs,

7. Sublevel Caving
Figure 10 shows sublevel caving and the underground layout
in a steeply dipping ore body. In sublevel caving, overall mining moves downward, while the ore between sublevels is broken overhand by up-hole drill rigs. The overlying waste rock
(hanging wall or capping) caves into the void created as the
ore is extracted. Because the hanging wall eventually caves to
the surface, all the main and secondary openings must be located in the footwall. Haulage drifts are excavated along the
strike of the ore body and connected with orepasses. Thereafter,
sublevel crosscuts are driven, in sequence corresponding to the
sublevel numbers identified in Figure 10, through the ore body
until the boundary of the hanging wall, where the sub-vertical
slot is opened upward. In the vertical cross section in Figure 10,
the sublevel crosscuts are excavated with a staggered pattern
such that those on the lower sublevels are arranged to be not

Figure 12 Block caving (undercutting and initiation of caving)

moderate to high dilution, and some surface subsidence.
8. Block Caving
Block caving is a mass production method, initially originating
and successfully applied to exploit massive and low-grade
porphyry copper deposits. When a block has a sufficient area
of undercut excavated in the lower part of the block, the mass
overlying the undercut will cave naturally. The area and volume of ore removed at the bottom of the block during undercut
must be large enough to induce caving. When properly applied,
block caving is capable of realizing the lowest cost and highest
productivity of all underground mining methods.
Sublevel and block caving allow the overlying rocks to cave
into the void created by drawing the broken ore and advancing
caving upward to the surface. Block caving is distinguished
from sublevel caving by the fact that both ore and waste are
caved in block caving, which only employs blasting for development and undercutting. In block caving, ore is broken by
overlying rock weight and further fragmented by collision and
pulverizing in the gravity flow. Although ideally, production
drilling is unnecessary, longhole drilling and blasting are
sometimes required to initiate and/or promote caving. Secondary breakage of oversized boulders is a frequent operation in
block caving.
Figure 12 shows the undercut operations and initiation of caving, and Figure 13 shows the propagation of caving through
the ore body and the upward extension of fractures drawing the
broken ore. Thereafter, caving is finally induced in the overlying waste rock (capping) and surface subsidence occurs (Fig-

Figure 13 Block caving (caving progress and formation of

arch)
ure 14).
The cavability of the ore body is the key factor in block caving.
The intensity of fracturing, and spacing and sets of fractures, is
a critical parameter. More densely fractured ore bodies tend to
cave more easily. Caved ore disintegrates under its own weight
and the weight of the overlying capping, and further reduces
the size by attrition. It is desired that the ore is strong enough
to support itself during development and undercutting but
readily breaks once caving initiates. Furthermore, in the ideal
case, all the fragments would break in to sufficiently small
pieces to pass through the draw holes or drawpoints.
The second key factor is in draw control and draw hole spacing, which determines the safety of operation and the rate of
recovery and dilution. If the ore is extracted faster than the
caving progresses, a void will be opened between the caved
ore and capping (Figure 13). The ore or capping must not be
allowed to form a large stable arch because collapse will result
in dangerous air blasts.
It is generally accepted that the upper surface of the caved ore
must be kept flat to ensure higher recovery and lower dilution.
Consequently, the volume of ore drawn through the draw holes
must be controlled so as to shift the boundary between caved
ore and waste uniformly. An uneven contact between ore and
waste is likely to trigger channeling flow of waste and prema-

ture dilution (Figure 14).

It is also practical knowledge that more finely broken ore requires closer spacing of draw holes. It is recommended that the
zone of disturbance or draw caused by a draw hole should
overlap all the adjacent zones of disturbance/draw so as to
generate regions between the zones where a gravity flow of ore
is activated. However, excessive overlaps will stimulate larger
and premature dilution by promoting the infiltration of waste.
Under favorable conditions, block caving is the least expensive
in terms of mining cost, offers good productivity, and provides
by far the highest production rate of any underground mining
method. However, block caving requires comprehensive development work and relatively long lead times prior to full
production. The method is also inflexible once production
starts: changing to another mining method is difficult. Moreover, the method is susceptible to unpredictable risks that disrupt operation, such as poor cavability and/or inadequate draw
control.
REFERENCES
1)
Hartman H.L. ed.(1992). Mining Engineering Handbook,
2nd Ed. 2170 pp., Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and
Exploration, Inc. (Littleton, USA). [A comprehensive
handbook on mining engineering, including general descriptions of mining practices with many case studies.
Also available on CD-ROM]
2)
Hartman H.L. (1987). Introductory Mining Engineering,
633 pp., John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (New York, USA).
3)
Hustrulid W.A. ed. (1982). Underground Mining Methods Handbook, 1754 pp., Society for Mining, Metallurgy,
and Exploration, Inc. (Littleton, USA). [A comprehensive handbook on mining engineering, including general
descriptions of mining practices with many case studies.
Also available on CD-ROM]
4)
Stout K.S. ed. (1980). Mining Methods & Equipment,
217 pp., McGraw-Hill, Inc. (New York, USA). [A visual
coursebook for introductory mining engineering programs for undergraduate students, with illustrations

Figure 14 Block caving (caved capping and draw controls)