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ABHAYA MISHRA
VCR MINING
Vertical crater retreat (VCR) mining is a method originally developed by the Canadian
mining company INCO.
Today, VCR is an established mining method used by mines all over the world that
have competent, steeply dipping ore and host rock.
VCR is based on the crater blasting technique in which powerful explosive charges are
placed in large-diameter holes and fired.
Part of the blasted ore remains in the stope over the production cycle, serving as temporary
support for the stope walls.
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COMPARISON FOR THE APPLICABILITY OF
VCR METHOD TO GIVEN CONDITIONS:
CHARACTERSTICS REQUIREMENTS GIVEN CONDITIONS
SOURCE:http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c05/e6-37-06-
MINE DEVELOPMENT AND LAYOUT:
SOURCE:
google.com/images/ugv
crmininglayout 6
CROWN PILLARS:
The last ten meters of the stope acts like a temporary crown pillar and is
normally broken using choke blasting. The mining sequence have been
changed from down dip to up dip and introduced backfilling because of ground
control problems.
This change was made to eliminate the stability problems that occurred
because of the crown pillars that were left behind when mining down dip, there
are no crown pillars left behind when mining up dip
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ACCESS TO DEPOSITS
The access to the mine is made through two vertical shafts at ground level;
one for ore and one for personnel and machinery.
The two upper shafts go down and then through a sub-vertical shaft down to
1,000m.
These shafts are also used for ventilation purpose.
Ramps are also driven which connects two levels.
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MACHINERIES USED:
Major machineries used in VCR mining are
ITH Drill machine
Small wagon
Jumbo drills
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CROSS CUTS
A passageway driven between the entry and its parallel air course or air
courses for ventilation purposes. Also, a tunnel driven from one seam to
another through or across the intervening measures; sometimes called
"crosscut tunnel", or "breakthrough".
For each stope, three 3.5 m wide x 3.5 m high draw point cross cuts are driven
from the footwall loader drive.
loader cross cuts are then driven through the ore body to the hangingwall.
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SILLS
The length of the sill is usually 8 to 10 m .
The most critical one, when the final over cut sill is blasted.
DRAW LEVEL
Level where ore can be loaded and removed.
A draw level is located beneath the stoping area, and gravity flow transfers the ore to
the loading level.
The draw point consists of a loader drive, two or three draw point cross-cuts . a tip and a
ventilation return airway. Each production stope in the retreat has one LHD assigned to
it.
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STOPE DEVELPOMENT
The stope development for VCR mining consists of two primary levels, the top
drilling level and the draw point level.
Where the stope drilling heights exceed 50 m an intermediate level is also
established in between the drilling and the draw level.
All three levels are accessed by drives from the ramp located in the footwall.
When development reaches the ore body, the height of the roof of the cross cut
is increased to 3.5 m.
Two different layouts are used for VCR, in the first one a single VCR drilling
chamber with a width of 8.0 m and two 2.4 x 3.5 m cross cuts.
In the second one two smaller VCR drilling chambers are excavated to about 6.0
m width which results in improved stability for the chamber
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DRILLING PATTERN
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SOURCE:http://www.slideshare.net/VCR-drilling-blasting
BLAST HOLE ARRANGEMENT:
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SOURCE:http://www.ct.ufrgs.br/laprom/Underground%20Mining
%20Methods.pdf
BLASTING
Energex cartridge slurry explosive is used, it very resistant to water and has a density of
1.3g/cc.
In order to ensure filling of the hole and to avoid decoupling, the cartridges are slit so that
they can easier expand in the hole.
The explosive power is concentrated to a length of six times the hole diameter to form a
point charge. The technique used for blasting the stopes is known as the cratering technique
and each blast breaks about 2.5 m to 3m of the stope back.
The holes are plugged using 110 mm diameter x 450 mm length wooden split plugs.
For stemming dry and uniform sand is used .
Each VCR blast gives an average of 2.5 m break and gives about 2 Kt of ore. In most stopes
fragmentation of ore is very good giving an average of 0.5 m x 0.4 m x 0.3 m.
After each blast the length of the holes are measured to identify where the ground level in
the stope is and to decide which holes should be blasted next.
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.
BLASTING PATTERN
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SOURCE:slideshare.com/undergroundblasting
SOURCE:slideshare.net/craterblastingtec
hnique 17
SPECIFIC PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN
ENCOUNTERED DURING STOPE BLASTING
Hole closure because of poor ground conditions in some areas.
sand baking because of too much stemming and wetness.
Blow outs because of insufficient stemming or poor placement of the charge.
coning of the hole which makes it difficult to plug the bottom of the hole.
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SUPPORT:
Roof bolt: 2.4m long 12-14 ton capacity, 500mm minimum thread length,
150mmx150mmx4mm thick, dog-eared face plate, installed on square grid.
Maximum allowable bolt protrusion is 50 -100mm, for both roof bolt and
threaded cable bolts, and 500mm for plain cable bolts.
All shallow dip holes should be flashed out of chippings before grouting roof
bolt.
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VENTILATION
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ANALYSIS OF GIVEN CONDITION
The ore in a stope block is drilled with ITH drill rigs positioned in the overcut.
Holes are drilled downward until they break through into the undercut.
Vertical holes are preferred wherever possible. Hole diameters vary from 140 to 165 mm, although
holes 205 mm in diameter have been tried in a few mines.
Holes are charged from the overcut using powerful charges contained in a short section of blast hole.
The ore is mucked from stopes through the undercut using remote-controlled LHDs or recovered by a
The powerful VCR charges involve higher risks for damaging the surrounding rock than sublevel open
stoping. 21
BLASTING ANALYSIS.
Spherical charges should be placed to obtain the maximum cratering effect. Gravity enlarges the crater
dimensions
Assuming hole diameter=165 mm and Blast hole pattern of 4 by 4m
Let the stope of operation has length(along strike)=40m
Width of stop is assumed to be 40m (30-50m)
As we can control no. of blasts in a shift rather than depth of blast which depends upon drilling machine.
So assume drill depth to be 100m.
So volume of blast=(40x40x100)=160000cubic meter
Assuming specific gravity of ore=2,
Total output per round of blast=160000x2=320000kg(320 ton)
This is close to per shift production(1000/3=333.33tn)
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So we require 1 blasting in the stope per shift.
PRODUCTION ANALYSIS:
Given Production Target is 1000tn/day
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PRODUCTION ANALYSIS:
Assuming in one day avg. 2 cycle is completed in 3 shifts and working on drilling over 4*4 m^2
Assuming some extra production of 8m^3, total production per cycle is 50 m^3
Let in one day 5 stopes are depillared then100*5=500 m^3 per day
So for per shift production 333.33 tn(1000/3) required quantity of air should be
2.5*333.33=8333.25 m^3/min=138.88 m^3/sec
Assuming 600 men are working in a shift so required quantity of air should be
600*6=3600m^3/min
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BACKFILLING:
It is done for further extraction of ore in next stope.
It should be done in such a way that it should sufficient enough such that it act as self
supporting during the extraction of other.
Upon completion of the ore extraction, the stope is often backfilled from the top drift,
providing rock stability for upcoming blasts.
It can be backfilled with cemented fill to provide wall support for the blasting of successive
stopes.
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ADVANTAGES:
Higher tonnage per day and lower stoping cost.
Increased safety of operations because drilling and blasting are carried out from above and
there is no need for the miner to enter the actual stope.
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REFERENCES:
Mine environment and ventilation by G.B. Mishra
Geotechnical aspects of vertical crater mining method in a deep mine by s.c. goel
http://www.slideshare.net/underground-blasting
http://www.slideshare.net/short-delay-blasting
http://www.ct.ufrgs.br/laprom/Underground%20Mining%20Methods.pdf
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