What is depth mining?

What is depth mining?

What is depth mining?

The exploitation of coal or mineral deposits by underground mining methods. ‘Deep’ is often interpreted as meaning 5,000 ft (1.5 km) or more, where stresses are high enough to cause sloughing of development openings, not to mention walls and faces in stopes.

What is deep mining called?

Underground hard-rock mining refers to various underground mining techniques used to excavate “hard” minerals, usually those containing metals, such as ore containing gold, silver, iron, copper, zinc, nickel, tin, and lead. It also involves the same techniques used to excavate ores of gems, such as diamonds and rubies.

What is the process of deep mining?

It involves drilling a section of ore at the very bottom of the deposit and then blasting to make the roof collapse. Gravity then takes over, as the ore above the blast site fractures and collapses in succession as support is withdrawn. The collapsed ore is hauled out the mine for processing [source: Great Mining].

What is deep mining used for?

Underground mining, sometimes called deep mining, is used when the coal is buried several hundred feet below the surface. To remove coal in these underground mines, miners ride elevators down deep mine shafts where they run machines that dig out the coal.

Which is deep mining problem?

These challenges include the catastrophic events that are often met in deep mining engineering: rockbursts, gas outbursts, high in situ and redistributed stresses, large deformation, squeezing and creeping rocks, and high temperature.

How deep is a deep mine?

List of deepest mines

Rank Name of mine Depth
1 Mponeng Gold Mine 4.0 km (2.5 mi)
2 TauTona Mine 3.9 km (2.4 mi)
3 Savuka Gold Mine 3.7 km (2.3 mi)
4 East Rand Mine 3.585 km (2.228 mi)

What is deep mining of coal?

Underground mining involves opening one or more portals or shafts into the earth that follow or intercept coal seams that are too deep for surface mining methods. Two main methods of underground mining are practiced in Pennsylvania: Room-and-Pillar: Generally used for seams that are relatively flat or gently dipping.

Why is deep level mining costly?

There are many explanations for the high cost: mines are getting deeper, infrastructure is old, and energy and labour costs exceed inflation.

What is the temperature in deep mines?

The temperature of the rock reaches 66 °C (151 °F), and the mine pumps slurry ice underground to cool the tunnel air below 30 °C (86 °F). A mixture of concrete, water, and rock is packed into excavated areas, which further acts as an insulator.