Vertical Crater Retreat

Blasthole mining is a general term applied to mining methods that employ long hole
drilling for the production of ore. In most Blasthole methods the ore is blasted into a
vertical opening. The blastholes may be small diameter long hole carbide drill holes
or larger diameter holes drilled with in-the-hole (IT! drills" or they may be a
combination of both.
Vertcial crater retreat is a comparatively new method of blasthole mining in which
only large diamter IT holes are used to blast down hori#ontal slices of ore into an
opening below the bloc$ of ore being mined. The method on the %cratering% effect of
an e&plosive charge being blasted close to the end of the hole. 'ining retreats
vertically as successive hori#ontal slices are blasted.
In the case of narrow stopes where hole deterioration is a problem" a slot is brought
up at one end of the bloc$ via cratering and the remainder of the bloc$ is slashed
into it. 'ining retreats hori#ontally as successive vertical slices are blasted.
Vertical bloc$ mining is the term most often used for this method. In VB' the
wor$place is divided into a series of vertical bloc$s and the bloc$s may be nined on
a retreat basis wor$ing from the ends of the wor$place. This may be repeated on
several different hori#ons in an e&tensive VB' area.
VB' (esign
Improvements )ro%s
- Increased productivity
- Increased production rate*wor$place
- Reduced total operating costs
- Improved wor$ing conditions
- +le&ibility to follow changes in ,tri$e*(ip
- adaptable to e&isting wor$places
- 'a&imi#e ore recovery
- 'inini#e dilution of roc$*sand
- Improve ground conditions
- 'inimi#e secondary mining
- Increase e-uipment utili#ation
- 'inimi#e capital e&penditures
.dvantages over Cut / +ill 'ethods
Vertical Bloc$ 'ining provides 0 distinct advantages over Cut / +ill 'ethods1
,.+2T3
- a reduction of the e&posure to open ground conditions and an
improved wor$place environment.
)R4(5CTIVIT3
- increased versatility by providing multiple headings.
C4,T
- a saving of ground conditioning materials
6ayout for a 6arge 7ew .rea
'ulti-level longitudinal VB'" consists of a bottom sill" several top sills driven as
sublevels" a footwall ramp access connecting the sublevels and raise bored ore
passes. The bottom sill is a new sill driven through the orebody. The access ramp is
driven from the top level in the footwall roc$" and connects each sublevel driven
through the orebody. 2ach sublevel is reinforced with grouted cable bolts. Two
bored raises are driven from the top level to the haulage level below" intersecting the
ramp at various intervals. 4ne serves as a roc$ pass and one as an ore pass. The
mining se-uence may be on a retreat pattern from the ends of the orebody8 and will
be ccled so that several bloc$s will be in the same phase simultaneously.
295I)'27T
(evelopment )roduction
:ardner (enver ; Boom 2lectric <umbo
.tlas Copco 0 Boom <umbo
<ac$leg*,toper
:ardner (enver (-=;0 6C( (rills
Boart Cable Bolting (rill Carrier
,cooptrams
.nfo 6oader
'ission IT (rill
Ingersoll-Rand IT (rill
:4->? IT (rill
R.C. ,cooptrams
6..(. R.C. (rill
ow the 'ethod @or$s
The mining cycle of a V.B.'. mining area is divided into A steps1
- (evelopment
- )roduction drilling
- 6oading*blasting
- 4re removal
- ,andfilling