HIGHWALL MINING TOOLS AND DESIGN TECHNIQUES

Chandrani Prasad Verma*, John Loui P**, N. R. Thote+, S. Nagdeote++

*Senior Scientist, **Principal Scientist,++Project Fellow, Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research, Nagpur + Associate Professor, Mining Department, VNIT, Nagpur

ABSTRACT
Highwall mining is a highly mechanised mining method, in which drivages are made in the final highwall of opencast mines for extraction of the deposit. It leads to added recovery of coal which is otherwise lost in the ultimate pit. It can mine thin seam as thin as 0.8 m. it can recover locked up coal in boundaries like., villages, roads, power lines, barriers, etc. At present, more than 80 % of the total production is coming from opencast mines and many of them are reaching their pit limits, hence application of this method in India has a huge potential to flourish coal mining industry. In this paper, a brief review of various tools and techniques available in technological shelf of India and abroad for highwall mine design are presented.

INTRODUCTION
Highwall mining the term itself implies mining operations performed in highwall. It is rather a modified version of auger mining with fully automated equipment. The evolution of highwall mining started in mid 1940s when surface blast holes were made horizontal to extract coal from the base of the highwall. By 1950s the concept was well utilised as auger mining in hilly areas of Appalachian coalfields. Then the augers started growing in size and power. With old system, it was possible to extract coal to a depth of 60 m to 100 m only. Thereafter to overcome augers shortcomings like limited penetration depth, inability to negotiate dip of the seam, diminishing power and size degradation with increase in depth, etc, new developments came in, which ultimately led to the development of present day continuous highwall miner. This miner is now capable of penetrating to a depth of 500m. In this method, series of parallel drivages are made in the seam horizon for extraction of the deposit. A pillar of almost similar dimension as of drivage is left in between two drivages. Such pillars are slender pillars and are called web pillars. Mining operations can be either single seam or multi-seam. In multi-seam operation, after extraction from one seam, the pit floor is filled up to next seam floor to form the working platform of highwall miner. The next seam is then targeted for extraction and miner is set over backfilled pit. It offers almost no disturbance to surrounding land and works within a small property. It requires very few personnel and drivages

dont need any roof support and ventilation. Thus, with less capital cost it eliminates all the hazards mainly associated with an underground mine. Use of automated equipment, remote control operations, safety of personnel and high production rate are some of the added advantages of this method. Miners are not exposed to underground hazard such as, roof fall, gas, dust, irrespirable atmosphere, flooding, and vehicle movement. Production rate is 0.8 to 1mt/year with fewer personnel. There is no generation of huge overburden/waste and it is possible to mine multi-seams whether closely spaced or widely spaced. Many times mine planner has to leave good amount of coal in boundaries and/or below surface features like, villages, roads, power lines, and of course in the ultimate pit due to uneconomic stripping ratios. Highwall mining is a solution to recover such deposits. Since coal contributes to about 60% of the total energy need and more than 80% of the total coal production is from opencast mine and many of them are reaching their pit limits, the technology has a great potential to increase the growth of coal mining industry. It will also help to reduce the existing demand-supply gap in energy scenario. Thus it necessary for us to get abreast of all the tools and design techniques that is presented in next section so that indigenous tools can be developed for the benefit of Indian mining industry and society as well.

PRESENT MINING SCENARIO

Subsequent to the advancement of whole mining system from auger to Continuous Highwall Miner (CHM), it become quite popular in U.S and as of now more than 60 highwall miners are in operation in U.S [1]. In many cases, it has been used in previously augered highwall. In Australia, highwall mining system was introduced in 1991. Till 2006, more than 13 coal mines applied the technology to over 30 pits [2]. Recently, the technology is introduced in Europe and Canada. This method of mining is successfully practised in USA, Russia, Australia, etc. In India, it is in budding stage and has a long way to go. It is a new technology which can extends the life of open cast coal mine without any major expenditure and without disturbing the open pit operations. Till date three designs on Highwall mining has come up and all of them were designed by CIMFR. First highwall face was designed at RG-II OCP of SCCL, another at West Bokaro of TISCO and third one at Medapalli OCP of SCCL. All this design was based on analysis by 2D numerical models along with well established CIMFR pillar design formulae with necessary modifications to take into account the behavior of slender pillars. Out of these three

highwall faces, mining operation at RG OC-II Project of SCCL has reached to completion. But no suitable guidelines have been framed till date for Indian mining condition.

TOOLS AND DESIGN TECHNIQUES

From the review of case studies in U.S and Australia, it is found that web pillar stability, unsupported span stability, highwall stability, coal pillar strength; roof and floor characteristics are some of the key issues in successful highwall mining operation. In U.S, Mark-Bieniawski pillar strength formula for slender pillars along with tributary approach is utilised to compute factor of safety of web pillar and barrier pillar. NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health) has developed a computer program named ARMPS-HWM (Analysis of Retreat Mining Pillar Stability Highwall Mining) to assist mine planners with mine design. In addition to this, design charts have been developed based on back analysis of field trials of earlier auger mining to determine web pillar and barrier pillar dimension [3]. Multiple seams in close occurrence due to splitting of thicker seam into thinner seams are frequently encountered in eastern U.S. Thus, detailed numerical simulation has been performed. BEM (Boundary Element Method) based non-linear LAMODEL and DEM (Distinct Element Method) based UDEC were utilised in few mines to visualise multi-seam interaction, roof & floor instability and catastrophic pillar failure. On the basis of which it is recommended to superimpose the web and barrier pillars of upper and lower seam. If the parting between two seams is very weak or thin then design should be based on combined height of both the seam and inter-burden height [3].

In Australia too, vast effort has been made by Council of Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia into development of this technology suitable for their mining conditions. Highwall Mining Index (HMI) is developed to classify the geo-mining condition based on various ratings to decide the applicability of this particular mining method at a particular site. Local Mine Stiffness (LMS) theory was built which ensures that any small change in equilibrium state of stress does not bring about sudden release of energy and/or great changes in the geometry of the system. Based on this concept and back analysis of highwall mining pits Panel Factor of Safety (PFS) has been established [4]. It is used in combination with local factor of safety for layout design of a highwall mining panel. Coal Roof Failure Model (CRFM) has been developed to estimate coal roof stability and is used in conjunction with UDEC models for unsupported span stability assessment. Laminated Span failure Model (LRFM) has been

developed to estimate span stability. 2D analysis software FESOFT package has been developed for safe mine design [5]. Some backfilling technique is also tried at few mines and work is still on to establish this. Existence of multiple seam of varying thickness makes Indian geo-mining condition quite complex. In general coal pillars are designed using established empirical formulaes which are developed for pillars of square cross-section of failed and stable cases. But in highwall mining conditions are quite different i.e pillars are slender and are subjected to asymmetric loading due to dipping seam and/or benched highwall. Thus general empirical formulas cannot be applied. Apart from that various factors affecting highwall stability, span stability, web pillar stability, interrelation between various parameters, the failure mechanics of slender pillars needs to be studied in detail.

CONCLUSION
Various tools & techniques have been developed like, HMI, LFSM, LRFM, ARMPS-HWM, Design Charts, etc based on real field experience. Though excellent progress has been made in last two decades further development is still going on. Knowledge of all such techniques will greatly help to understand and identify critical parameters of a highwall mine design. With many years experience of pillar design CIMFR has already designed three such mine faces, which a step forward in the development of this technology in association with SCCL and TISCO. Sincere efforts to develop the technology are on the way for practical and reliable design of highwall mining particularly for Indian Mining Conditions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are thankful to The Director, CIMFR and The Director, VNIT for their permission to publish this paper. The views expressed are of authors and do not belong to the institute to which they belong.

REFERENCES
1. Zipf, R.K. and Bhatt, S.K. Analysis of Practical Ground Control Issues in Highwall Mining. In Proceedings, 23rd Conference on Ground Control in Mining, West Virginia University, Aug. 3-5, 2004, pp. 210-219. 2. Shen B, Duncan Fama ME. Review of highwall mining experience in Australia and case studies. Downloaded from internet

3. Zipf, R.K. Ground Control Design for Highwall Mining. SME Annual Meeting, pre-print number 05-82, 2005, 9 pp. 4. Adhikary D.P., Shen, B., Duncan Fama M.E., A Study of Highwall Mining Panel Stability, International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences, vol. 39, 2002, pp 643-659 5. Duncan-Fama, M.E., Shen, B., Craig, M.S., Kelly, M., Follington, I.L. and Leisemann, B.E. Layout Design and Case Study for Highwall Mining Of Coal. Proceedings, International Congress on Rock Mechanics, eds. G. Vouille and P. Berest, 1999, Vol. 1, pp. 265-268. 6. Jeff Sartaine, President, Mining Technology Inc, Highwall mining in Australia pp 1- 9 http://www.qrc.org.au/conference/_dbase_upl/1993_spk016_Sartaine.pdf 7. Technology News 516 (2006): ARMPSHWM: New Software for Sizing Pillars for Highwall Mining - http://www.cdc.gov/niosh 8. CSIR India News Letter, ISSN 04 09-7467, Vol. 59, No. 13, 15 July, 2009, CIMFR Designs First Highwall Mining in India, pp. 177-179. 9.