Principles of Mining Part 8

_a_. The regularity of the deposit.

_b_. The effect of the method of excavation of winzes and rises.

_c_. The dip and the method of stoping.

REGULARITY OF THE DEPOSIT.--From a prospecting point of view the more levels the better, and the interval therefore must be determined somewhat by the character of the deposit. In erratic deposits there is less risk of missing ore with frequent levels, but it does not follow that every level need be a through roadway to the shaft or even a stoping base. In such deposits, intermediate levels for prospecting alone are better than complete levels, each a roadway.

Nor is it essential, even where frequent levels are required for a stoping base, that each should be a main haulage outlet to the shaft. In some mines every third level is used as a main roadway, the ore being poured from the intermediate ones down to the haulage line. Thus tramming and shaft work, as stated before, can be concentrated.

EFFECT OF METHOD OF EXCAVATING WINZES AND RISES.--With hand drilling and hoisting, winzes beyond a limited depth become very costly to pull spoil out of, and rises too high become difficult to ventilate, so that there is in such cases a limit to the interval desirable between levels, but these difficulties largely disappear where air-winches and air-drills are used.

THE DIP AND METHOD OF STOPING.--The method of stoping is largely dependent upon the dip, and indirectly thus affects level intervals.

In dips under that at which material will "flow" in the stopes--about 45 to 50--the interval is greatly dependent on the method of stope-transport. Where ore is to be shoveled from stopes to the roadway, the levels must be comparatively close together. Where deposits are very flat, under 20, and walls fairly sound, it is often possible to use a sort of long wall system of stoping and to lay tracks in the stopes with self-acting inclines to the levels.

In such instances, the interval can be expanded to 250 or even 400 feet. In dips between 20 and 45, tracks are not often possible, and either shoveling or "b.u.mping troughs"[*] are the only help to transport. With shoveling, intervals of 100 feet[**] are most common, and with troughs the distance can be expanded up to 150 or 175 feet.

[Footnote *: Page 136.]

[Footnote **: Intervals given are measured on the dip.]

In dips of over 40 to 50, depending on the smoothness of the foot wall, the distance can again be increased, as stope-transport is greatly simplified, since the stope materials fall out by gravity.

In timbered stopes, in dips over about 45, intervals of 150 to 200 feet are possible. In filled stopes intervals of over 150 feet present difficulties in the maintenance of ore-pa.s.ses, for the wear and tear of longer use often breaks the timbers. In shrinkage-stopes, where no pa.s.ses are to be maintained and few winzes put through, the interval is sometimes raised to 250 feet. The subject is further discussed under "Stoping."

Another factor bearing on level intervals is the needed insurance of sufficient points of stoping attack to keep up a certain output.

This must particularly influence the manager whose mine has but little ore in reserve.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 19.]

PROTECTION OF LEVELS.--Until recent years, timbering and occasional walling was the only method for the support of the roof, and for forming a platform for a stoping base. Where the rock requires no support sublevels can be used as a stoping base, and timbering for such purpose avoided altogether (Figs. 38, 39, 42). In such cases the main roadway can then be driven on straight lines, either in the walls or in the ore, and used entirely for haulage. The subheading for a stoping base is driven far enough above or below the roadway (depending on whether overhand or underhand stoping is to be used) to leave a supporting pillar which is penetrated by short pa.s.ses for ore. In overhand stopes, the ore is broken directly on the floor of an upper sublevel; and in underhand stopes, broken directly from the bottom of the sublevel. The method entails leaving a pillar of ore which can be recovered only with difficulty in mines where stope-support is necessary. The question of its adoption is then largely one of the comparative cost of timbering, the extra cost of the sublevel, and the net value of the ore left.

In bad swelling veins, or badly crushing walls, where constant repair to timbers would be necessary, the use of a sublevel is a most useful alternative. It is especially useful with stopes to be left open or worked by shrinkage-stoping methods.

If the haulage level, however, is to be the stoping base, some protection to the roadway must be provided. There are three systems in use,--by wood stulls or sets (Figs. 19, 30, 43), by dry-walling with timber caps (Fig. 35), and in some localities by steel sets.

Stulls are put up in various ways, and, as their use entails the least difficulty in taking the ore out from beneath the level, they are much favored, but are applicable only in comparatively narrow deposits.

WINZES AND RISES.

These two kinds of openings for connecting two horizons in a mine differ only in their manner of construction. A winze is sunk underhand, while a rise is put up overhand. When the connection between levels is completed, a miner standing at the bottom usually refers to the opening as a rise, and when he goes to the top he calls it a winze. This confusion in terms makes it advisable to refer to all such completed openings as winzes, regardless of how they are constructed.

In actual work, even disregarding water, it costs on the average about 30% less to raise than to sink such openings, for obviously the spoil runs out or is a.s.sisted by gravity in one case, and in the other has to be shoveled and hauled up. Moreover, it is easier to follow the ore in a rise than in a winze. It usually happens, however, that in order to gain time both things are done, and for prospecting purposes sinking is necessary.

The number of winzes required depends upon the method of stoping adopted, and is mentioned under "Stoping." After stoping, the number necessary to be maintained open depends upon the necessities of ventilation, of escape, and of pa.s.sageways for material to be used below. Where stopes are to be filled with waste, more winzes must be kept open than when other methods are used, and these winzes must be in sufficient alignment to permit the continuous flow of material down past the various levels. In order that the winzes should deliver timber and filling to the most advantageous points, they should, in dipping ore-bodies, be as far as possible on the hanging wall side.

DEVELOPMENT IN THE EARLY PROSPECTING STAGE.

The prime objects in the prospecting stage are to expose the ore and to learn regarding the ore-bodies something of their size, their value, metallurgical character, location, dip, strike, etc.,--so much at least as may be necessary to determine the works most suitable for their extraction or values warranting purchase. In outcrop mines there is one rule, and that is "follow the ore." Small temporary inclines following the deposit, even though they are eventually useless; are nine times out of ten justified.

In prospecting deep-level projects, it is usually necessary to layout work which can be subsequently used in operating the mine, because the depth involves works of such considerable scale, even for prospecting, that the initial outlay does not warrant any antic.i.p.ation of revision. Such works have to be located and designed after a study of the general geology as disclosed in adjoining mines.

Practically the only method of supplementing such information is by the use of churn- and diamond-drills.

DRILLING.--Churn-drills are applicable only to comparatively shallow deposits of large volume. They have an advantage over the diamond drill in exposing a larger section and in their application to loose material; but inability to determine the exact horizon of the spoil does not lend them to narrow deposits, and in any event results are likely to be misleading from the finely ground state of the spoil. They are, however, of very great value for preliminary prospecting to shallow horizons.

Two facts in diamond-drilling have to be borne in mind: the indication of values is liable to be misleading, and the deflection of the drill is likely to carry it far away from its antic.i.p.ated destination.

A diamond-drill secures a small section which is sufficiently large to reveal the geology, but the values disclosed in metal mines must be accepted with reservations. The core amounts to but a little sample out of possibly large amounts of ore, which is always of variable character, and the core is most unlikely to represent the average of the deposit. Two diamond-drill holes on the Oroya Brownhill mine both pa.s.sed through the ore-body. One apparently disclosed unpayable values, the other seemingly showed ore forty feet in width a.s.saying $80 per ton. Neither was right. On the other hand, the predetermination of the location of the ore-body justified expenditure. A recent experiment at Johannesburg of placing a copper wedge in the hole at a point above the ore-body and deflecting the drill on reintroducing it, was successful in giving a second section of the ore at small expense.

The deflection of diamond-drill holes from the starting angle is almost universal. It often amounts to a considerable wandering from the intended course. The amount of such deflection varies with no seeming rule, but it is probable that it is especially affected by the angle at which stratification or lamination planes are inclined to the direction of the hole. A hole has been known to wander in a depth of 1,500 feet more than 500 feet from the point intended. Various instruments have been devised for surveying deep holes, and they should be brought into use before works are laid out on the basis of diamond-drill results, although none of the inventions are entirely satisfactory.

CHAPTER X.

Stoping.

METHODS OF ORE-BREAKING; UNDERHAND STOPES; OVERHAND STOPES; COMBINED STOPE. VALUING ORE IN COURSE OF BREAKING.

There is a great deal of confusion in the application of the word "stoping." It is used not only specifically to mean the actual ore-breaking, but also in a general sense to indicate all the operations of ore-breaking, support of excavations, and transportation between levels. It is used further as a noun to designate the hole left when the ore is taken out. Worse still, it is impossible to adhere to miners' terms without employing it in every sense, trusting to luck and the context to make the meaning clear.

The conditions which govern the method of stoping are in the main:--

_a_. The dip.

_b_. The width of the deposit.

_c_. The character of the walls.

_d_. The cost of materials.

_e_. The character of the ore.

Every mine, and sometimes every stope in a mine, is a problem special to itself. Any general consideration must therefore be simply an inquiry into the broad principles which govern the adaptability of special methods. A logical arrangement of discussion is difficult, if not wholly impossible, because the factors are partially interdependent and of varying importance.

For discussion the subject may be divided into:

1. Methods of ore-breaking.

2. Methods of supporting excavation.

3. Methods of transport in stopes.

METHODS OF ORE-BREAKING.

The manner of actual ore-breaking is to drill and blast off slices from the block of ground under attack. As rock obviously breaks easiest when two sides are free, that is, when corners can be broken off, the detail of management for blasts is therefore to set the holes so as to preserve a corner for the next cut; and as a consequence the face of the stope shapes into a series of benches (Fig.

22),--inverted benches in the case of overhand stopes (Figs. 20, 21). The size of these benches will in a large measure depend on the depth of the holes. In wide stopes with machine-drills they vary from 7 to 10 feet; in narrow stopes with hand-holes, from two to three feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 20.]

The position of the men in relation to the working face gives rise to the usual primary cla.s.sification of the methods of stoping.

They are:--

1. Underhand stopes, 2. Overhand stopes, 3. Combined stopes.

These terms originated from the direction of the drill-holes, but this is no longer a logical basis of distinction, for underhand holes in overhand stopes,--as in rill-stoping,--are used entirely in some mines (Fig. 21).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 21.]

UNDERHAND STOPES.--Underhand stopes are those in which the ore is broken downward from the levels. Inasmuch as this method has the advantage of allowing the miner to strike his blows downward and to stand upon the ore when at work, it was almost universal before the invention of powder; and was applied more generally before the invention of machine-drills than since. It is never rightly introduced unless the stope is worked back from winzes through which the ore broken can be let down to the level below, as shown in Figures 22 and 23.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 22.]