Underground mining methods to influence industry’s changes

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The next five decades will see momentous changes in the mining industry, particularly when it comes to underground mining methods, according to a published report.

Efforts to solve the various problems, which have required intensive research, have delved into the issue of mine safety at a depth of 5 kilometers, The Financial Mail reports. All gold miners are being forced to confront similar issues, strategic design vice president Shaun Newberry with AngloGold Ashanti told the news source, noting he is a spokesman for the Technology Innovation Consortium, which is a collaborative research group. Mining deeper, achieving advances for safety and enhancing production are the top goals that the consortium is pursuing.

Hand-held drills presently are being used for the purposes of keep-level mining, specifically to bore holes into the rock so that mining consultants can insert explosives. The mandate of widening tunnels to accommodate the entry and exploration of people and their equipment prompts the distillation of grade of the product they are mining. That grade at times can be halved or even worse. Roughly 40 percent of an ore body must be left in place as a safety precaution against seismic risks by serving as pillars.

Mechanical rock breaking
The consortium is looking into strategies of mechanical rock breaking that are known as continuous reef boring. Officials in the industry consider that to be markedly safer and more efficient than hand-held drilling. The body is probing methods of driving up extraction ratios and infrastructure efficiency by working on knowledge of the bodies of ore and implementing mined rock with material of a similar strength That is known as ultra high-strength backfill, which varies in composition and strength as compared to the material that presently is used in the industry.

The strategic design vice president said the enhanced techniques of mining are likely to enable miners to directly access the gold-bearing without going through the rock.

Pursuit of ore bodies
General manager Peter Craven with business development at Mintek said efforts are underway to enhance access to as well as the processing of ore bodies that are low-grade and complex while mining delves deeper and the interests are depleted.

Based in South Africa, AngloGold Ashanti presently is delving into 21 operations dispersed among 10 nations, according to its website.

It breaks down its interests into four geographic regions, which are South Africa, Continental Africa, Americans and Australasia, the website states.

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