FUTURE OF UNDERGROUND COAL

MINING IN BRAZIL: IMPLEMENTATION

OF LONGWALL MINING
*F. A. C. Cardozo1, M. Zampiron1and A. C. Zingano1
1
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
9500 Bento Gonçalves Avenue
Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
(*Corresponding author: fernando.cantini3@hotmail.com)

October 18-21, 2016 • Rio de Janeiro /RJ • Brazil

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FUTURE OF UNDERGROUND COAL MINING IN BRAZIL: IMPLEMENTATION OF

LONGWALL MINING

ABSTRACT

It's been a while since the exhaustion of most economic coal deposits minable through open pit
mining has encouraged the use of underground mining. Among the underground mining methods of higher
productivity and lower cost is the Longwall Retreating Mining. This method is almost unknown in Brazil,
but with attempts of being used in the State of Rio Grande do Sul and a new intention of being applied in a
new mine. Currently the coal mining in Brazil is held by open pit method in the State of Rio Grande do Sul,
and by Room and Pillars in State of Santa Catarina. Both methods have some advantage and disadvantage in
terms of productivity, operation cost, recovery, and environmental issues. There is a huge coal deposit near
to Porto Alegre, but it’s very deep for surface mining, and conventional room-and-pillar mining could not be
applied because the higher cost and low productivity. This case study is related to the use of longwall mining
method for this very important coal deposit, in terms of basic infra structures, the natural characteristics of
deposits, accesses and support, design of pillars, ventilation, mining planning and choice of equipment for
longwall mining. The project was set up for a production of 4 Mtpa. The mining panels are 400 m wide and
over 2000m long for average 2.5 m of coal seam thickness. In addition to mining it was considered 3 faces
for development with miner bolter. This study showed that it’s possible to development an underground coal
mine that could reach the high production, and low cost.

KEYWORDS
Underground Coal Mining, Longwall, Rio Grande do Sul, Conceptual Design

INTRODUCTION

The longwall mining method is traditionally applied to underground coal mining, where the integrity
of the immediately roof above the coal seam already mined is caved (Brady & Brown, 1995). This mining
method is high productivity and low cost, because it’s full mechanized and automated mining. When the roof
caves, there is a distribution of the stresses to the face and chain pillars in both sides of the panel, which is
called the abutment pressure (Peng, 2007). Figure 1 shows a sketch of a longwall mining face.
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Figure 1. Perspective of a front of longwall

Currently the longwall method is known worldwide for presenting the highest productivity among
all the underground coal mining methods. In 2013 the United States produced 189.2 Mton of coal using
longwall which represented 53% of the coal production in underground mines. The productivity of the
method was 4.15 t/hour.man (USA) against an average of 2.5 t/hour.man achieved by the other underground
coal mining methods, according EIA (2015).
This study was based on the knowledge of the longwall operations worldwide applied on the
Brazilian coal deposit conditions. It aims to investigate the application of longwall in a mine located in the
southern of Brazil. The Triumph Mine can be considered compatible with the longwall method since it
presents satisfactory thickness, flat and high continuity. Among the good geology conditions for longwall,
this deposit is very important because the coal resource is more than 200 Mt of coal.
The study area is located in the municipality of Triunfo in southern state of Rio Grande do Sul,
Brazil. The area is adjacent to a petrochemical complex to the Northeast, to the Jacuí Park and the Jacuí River
to the South and West, respectively. Also, this area is close to Charqueadas Coal Mine, an underground
operation located at this area that closed since 1990. This area, subject to mineral exploration and mining,
including the mine of Charqueadas Mine, embracing an area of 39000 ha.

Triunfo City

Longwall Mining

Figure 2 - Location of Triunfo City and the longwall mining

On the basis of available data, a study was conducted aiming to investigating the best technical and
economic alternative to recover the coal at Triumph region. It was taking into account: minimum
environmental and social impact, profitability, operation efficiency, high productivity and mineral recovery.
The existence of a large good quality coal deposit and the interest of its economic exploitation has
been known for long time. Nevertheless, it was located on deeper layers when compared to the coal seams
currently exploited in Brazil.
In the past, coal had been mined in more superficial deposits in Rio Grande do Sul, including surface
mining, with considerable lower costs. However, the depletion of such coal reserves and the ever growing
demand for coal justified the necessity to evaluate this deposit. In the 70’s and 80’s, the Charqueadas Mine,
located about 3km west of the area in study was developed. At that the time, the main problem in coal mining
was the intensive support and stabilization of the immediate roof, and floor heave.
In 2008 and 2009, a coal company carried out some exploration in the region with the plan to
develop a coal mining, but due to geological conditions (mainly the quality of the immediate roof) the project
was closed. The information and data of the late mining experience and the results of the more recent projects
have been used in the study and evaluation of the possibility of longwall application.
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LONGWALL DESIGN

Based on the few boreholes made in the coal deposit, it has been set a layer named as I2B to be
mined. It was the one with the greatest continuity, fundamental factor for using this method, and also
presented a consistent thickness of an average over 2.5 meters, perfect for longwall. The objective area was
located outside of the environmental preservation areas and where the coal seam presented a thickness greater
than 2.0 meters. A first moment the region down the river has not considered as a target, defining it as a
possible area of expansion (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Location of the area with a thickness greater than 2 m

Considering the premises of the mining method layout presented in bibliography (Peng, 2006;
Bessinger, 2011) it was created the concept for longwall mine. Mining panels 400 m wide were placed in
such a way to best fill the target area. The first four panels were designed with smaller width, due to the need
for experimenting with the mining method.

Figure 4 - General layout of the mine showing the arrangement of mining panels
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The main entries pillars were designed by using the methodology proposed by Bieniawski (1963),
the other pillars of tailgate, headgate and bleeder were desinged by the ALPS methodology (Mark, 1990).
According to ALPS methodology, the pillars designed at the mains 25x25m wide, and entries are
5m wide. The height was equal to the coal seam thickness of 2 meters. The average coal layer Uniaxial
Compressive Resistance was considered 4.0MPa (Zingano et al., 2015) and the adopted safety factor not less
than 1.5. The tailgate and headgate pillars were designed to be 30x30m and the bleeder were 28x28 meters.
To design the barrier pillars between the longwall panels and mains, the empirical methodology of
10% of the depth plus 13 meters (45ft) was adopted. In this way the pillars were estimated to reach 35 meters
wide. This methodology have been successfully applied in the United Kingdom (PENG, 2008) coal mines of
the. It was considered a system of three galleries in the tailgate and headgate since it had proven to be the
safer.

Table 1 – Planned panels geometrical parameter

Average thinckness (I2B) 2.5

Panel One Panel All Panels
Number of
Width Length Panels Volume Tons Volume Tons

200 2225 2 1.112.500,00 2.225.000,00 2.225.000,00 4.450.00,00

300 2225 1 1.668.750,00 3.337.500,00 1.668.750,00 3.337.500,00
400 2225 29 2.225.000,00 4.450.000,00 64.525.000,00 129.050.000,00
400 2777 4 2.777.000,00 5.554.000,00 11.108.000,00 22.216.000,00
400 4069 2 4.069.000,00 8.138.000,00 8.138.000,00 16.276.000,00
TOTAL 38 87.664.750,00 175.329.500,00

Based on the production premises of 4 Mtpa and operational productivity, the equipment fleet was
defined for both, production and development.

Table 2 - 400 meters wide longwall panels

Description Number

Hydraulic roof support (face shield) with 1.75 m wide and two legs system 229
AFC (Armored Face Conveyor) drag chute for transport of coal (400 m) 1
Two drums Shearer (double ended shearer) 1
Stageloader for transfer of the AFC for the coal conveyor belt feeder 1

Jaw Crusher (feeder breaker) to reduce size of blocks 1

Belt feeder 1
Tractor to transport equipment (shields and shearer) 2

Scoop to transport supplies 1

Oil pumping system to support equipment and shearer 1

Track system for movement of equipment on the Panel 1

Communication system 1
Energy generator 1
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Table 3 - Development galleries

Description Number
Continuous mining with drilling rigs (miner boom) 1
Shuttle car for coal transportation until the feeder 2
Roof bolter 1
Feeder breaker (crusher and belt feeder) 1
Scoop for cleaning and supplies transporting 1
Energy generator 1

CONCLUSION

According to the conceptual model of longwall mining and to the information about the potential
deposits of southern Brazil, the implementation of longwall mining have been proved for future work. It is
necessary to emphasize the need of further studies, more so, about the deposit’s structural geology. It could
be an important obstacle to overcome in the event of applying this underground mining method. Such
geological features are even more pronounced in the coal seams of Santa Catarina State compelling, in the
first moment, to investigate the underground mining of the Rio Grande do Sul State coal formations.
The coal market demand over 4 Million of tons year yet to be produced in Brazil is a reasonable
argument to invest more efforts in investigating the use of Longwall Mining at the Brazilian coal seams.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul by supporting this
study, the Laboratório de Pesquisa Mineral (UFRGS) for making it available the information and technical
expertise and Caterpillar for making it possible the discussions with Prof. Syd Peng which inspired this work.
REFERENCES
Brady, B. H. G., Brown, E.T. (1995). Rock Mechanics for Underground Mining. Chapman & Hall, 2º ed,
572 pg.

Bessinger, Stephen L. (2011). Longwall Mining. In: Peter Darling (Org.). SME Mining Engineering
Handbook. 3. ed. Usa: SME, 2011. Chap. 13. p. 1399-1415.

Cardozo, F. A. C. (2015). Longwall: Estado da Arte, Geomecânica, Planejamento e Aplicação. (Master’s

thesis) - Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre.

Energy Information Administration. (2015). Annual coal report. DOE/EIA-TR-20585. Washington, DC,
April 2015.

Mark, C. (1990). Pillar Design Methods for Longwall Mining. Information Circular IC 9247. Washington,
DC: U. S. Bureau of Mines.

Peng, S. S. (1992). Surface Subsidence Engineering. Morgantown Printer, 161 pag

Peng, S. S. (2006). Longwall Mining. Morgantown Printer, 2º ed, 621 pag

PENG, S.S. (2008). Coal Mining Ground Control. Morgantown Printer, 600 pag
Zingano, A. C., Carvalho, A., Cardozo, F. A. C. (2015). Projeto de Lavra Subterrânea de Carvão, Jazida
Triunfo: Fase de Pré-Viabilidade. Luiz Englert Foundation’s technical report, Porto Alegre.
Unpublished.
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